Tampa Bay Rays DH Pat Burrell says he's frustrated, embarrassed by poor season

BALTIMORE — Pat Burrell's frustration over the losing streak is what surfaced Sunday, his angry dispute of a call he knew was right and subsequent ejection.

"When you're on a good team like we are and you see the way things have shaped up the last two weeks, it's frustrating and embarrassing," Burrell said. "And there's no other way to say it."

The disappointment of his entire season — a .227 average and careers lows in homers (13) and RBIs (58) — will stick with him for a while.

"It's just plain and simple not good enough; that's the way I look at," he said. "You can get creative with other words and stuff, but at the end of the day you just haven't done good enough.

"Do I believe that one guy can make that much of an impact to put a team in the playoffs? It depends. There's been a couple things I think our team has gone through that we can build on, some of it's the youth of it, but it just hasn't been good enough. Not for me, not for this team, not for these players. And that's a sh---y feeling.

"But what are you going to do? Are you going to sit around in the corner and mope about, are you going to get yourself going and move forward?"

Burrell, who signed a two-year, $16 million deal, said it's important to play hard over the final weeks and go into the offseason knowing "at least you gave it all you had to close it out." He also spoke to B.J. Upton about not trying to salvage a bad season but building a solid base to take into spring training.

Burrell said the poor showing bothered him — that "there's nothing worse that not doing what you should be doing" — and he expects to do better next season, having gone through the adjustments of switching leagues and becoming a DH.

"There's no excuses for not putting up the numbers you should put up and being whatever it is they signed me to do as a player," he said. "When you don't fulfill that part of it on the field obviously you question a bunch of things and try to figure out what it is you've got to do better."

GOING FORWARD: Manager Joe Maddon said, with perhaps the exception of giving Reid Brignac a few starts at shortstop and second base, he's planning to stick with the regular players over the final weeks. Shutting down some of the pitchers is a possibility. The Orioles on Monday did that with rookie LHP Brian Matusz, and tabbed ex-Ray Mark Hendrickson to start Thursday.

ON SCHEDULE: The 2010 schedule will be released today; the Rays are expected to open at home with the Orioles and Yankees, make interleague trips to Atlanta, Florida and Houston and host NL foes Arizona, Florida and San Diego.

MINOR MATTERS: Class A Charlotte lost 3-1 to Tampa (Yankees) and trails 2-1 in the best-of-five Florida State League championship. Game 4 is tonight at 7 in Port Charlotte. For ticket info and to follow the games, see stonecrabsbaseball.com. … Triple-A Durham opens play tonight against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Yankees) in the best-of-five International League championship, with RHP Jeremy Hellickson on the mound.

MINOR-LEAGUER SUSPENDED: OF Waldo Rosario, 18, a first-year pro on the Dominican Summer League team, was suspended 50 games next season after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Stanozolol.

OLD COLLEGE TRY: Maddon hosted a small group from Lafayette College, and said the school is planning on awarding him honorary degree (he's also going into the hall of fame) and he will get involved in fundraising for the baseball program.

MISCELLANY: Beleaguered closer J.P. Howell worked a scoreless ninth in his first outing since Sept. 6. … Maddon continues to push RHP Jeff Niemann, who starts tonight, for the AL rookie of the year award. … The Rays went 3-14 in the seemingly key 17-game stretch against the Tigers, Red Sox and Yankees.