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Rays: Defensive alignment gets extra thinking

 
Tampa Bay Times
Published Aug. 22, 2013

Today: Off

Next game: Friday, vs. Yankees, 7:10 p.m., Tropicana Field, Sun Sports. Probable pitchers: Rays — RH Chris Archer (6-5, 2.95); Yankees — RH Hiroki Kuroda (11-8, 2.41)

On deck

Saturday: vs. Yankees, 7:10, Sun Sports. Rays — LH David Price (7-5, 3.29); Yankees — LH CC Sabathia (11-10, 4.83)

Sunday: vs. Yankees, 1:40, Sun Sports. Rays — RH Alex Cobb (8-2, 2.85); Yankees — RH Ivan Nova (6-4, 2.99)

Monday: at Royals, 2:10, no TV. Rays — RH Jeremy Hellickson (10-7, 5.01); Royals — RH Jeremy Guthrie (12-10, 4.27)

Rays disabled list

DH Luke Scott, back spasms, 15-day, eligible Aug. 30

OF Brandon Guyer, broken finger, 15-day, eligible Aug. 17

LHP Matt Moore, elbow soreness, 15-day, eligible Aug. 13

RHP Jesse Crain, shoulder strain, 60-day, eligible Aug. 29

RHP Jeff Niemann, shoulder surgery, 60-day, out for the season

RHP Juan Carlos Oviedo, elbow surgery, 60-day, out until September

Marc Topkin, Times staff writer

AL wild card

Team W-L Win% GB

Rays 72-53 .576

A's 71-55 .563—

Indians 69-58 .543 2.5

Orioles 68-58 .540 3

Yankees 67-59 .532 4

Deep thinking

Sometimes baseball can be simple, other times not so much. The Rays posted their lineup Wednesday afternoon without assigning positions to corner outfielders Jason Bourgeois and Sam Fuld — note the 0 under POS. The reason was that manager Joe Maddon wanted more data and input on which position was likely to be more difficult. He eventually decided left was, and put Fuld there. (Ironically, Bourgeois misplayed a drive to right into a double.)

Ball game

The Rays Wives are hosting the third annual Mystery Ball event, benefiting All Children's Hospital, on Saturday. For $10 at Gates 1 and 5, fans can buy autographed balls that are wrapped — thus the mystery. Inventory includes Rays players and stars from other teams, including Carl Crawford, Mariano Rivera and Yasiel Puig.