Free baseball Friday

CLEARWATER – Rain cut short the second Rays game this week when it stopped Thursday’s game against the Phillies at Bright House Field in the top of the sixth with he Rays leading 6-4.
The good news for the Rays is it goes in the books as a victory.

The bad news is Andy Sonnanstine, Wade Davis and Jae Kuk Ryu, who were scheduled to pitch, didn’t get in the game.

Add this to Tuesday’s game against Minnesota that was stopped in the top of the fifth and you have a pitching staff that desperately needs work.

Seven Rays are scheduled to pitch Friday when the Phillies come to Al Lang, starting with Jeff Neimman, who will start and likely throw two innings.

The Rays are running out of innings for their pitchers.

“Everybody has the same problems,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

The Rays and Phillies have a plan.

Since they meet Friday in St. Petersburg, they will play the scheduled nine innings then play an additional three or four so they can get innings for the pitchers.

Al Lang will remain open to fans during the extra frames, meaning free baseball.

Going the other way
Akinori Iwamura homered to left field on the second pitch of Thursday’s game.
Carlos Pena hit his first home run of the spring in the fifth inning, also to left field.
Carl Crawford tripled to left field.

Notice a trend?

The left-handed hitters were driving the ball to the opposite field.

And the right-handed Jonny Gomes drilled a double to right field.

“I’m not opposed to anyone pulling the baseball, but we really like to work gap-to-gap,” Maddon said. “(Hitting coach Steve Henderson) preaches that on a daily basis, and when you got guys doing that, it makes it more difficult to pitch to them.”

Pena said he and Gomes talk about that often.

“We talk about driving the ball the other way if they’re going to pitch us outside,” Pena said. “We talk about being patient, laying off the balls and swinging at strikes. That way you can work deeper into counts. That’s when you feel that you are in control during that at-bat.”

Speaking of Pena
Pena was just as impressed with the swing he had on the ball he lined out to left in his second at-bat as he was with the ball he launched into the tiki bar behind left field in his third at-bat.

Both were the results of good swings.

He knew he was being pitched outside, and instead of trying to pull a pitch he couldn’t pull. He lay off them until he got something he could hit.

“I waited for it, trusted my hands,” Pena said of his home run swing. “I saw it all the way in. But the good thing is I actually executed what I planned. I was focused and I hit it. I got a great result. That’s the best result you can get.”

Evan the fielder
Much has been said about Evan Longoria’s bat, but his glove at third base isn’t too shabby, either.

“I’ve been telling guys from Day 1 that’s who he is,” Rays pitcher James Shields said. “That’s how he plays. He’s got a gold glove mentality over there.”

Longoria showed that during the third inning when he raced in to field a bunt from Shane Victorino, picked the ball up with his bare hand and fired the ball across his body in time to get Victorino by a hair.

“Oh my god. I don’t think even Victorino could believe that,” Maddon said.

Shortstop Jason Bartlett told Longoria to play in a step or two, and Longoria said he had a feeling Victorino would bunt.

Still, there’s a difference between feeling a guy is going to bunt and making the play, and Longoria’s play makes the highlight reels during the regular season.

“I’ve done it before,” he said. “That’s a play I can make, but it’s always tough, especially when a guy can run down the line a little bit. It’s a chance play, a do-or-die play.”

Two things are important in making that play: pick up the ball and don’t rush the throw.

“I was thinking get to the ball, pick up the ball and throw the ball,” Longoria said. “I wasn’t thinking I got to get rid of this. If you rush yourself you’re done.”

Shields fine in second start
Shields allowed six hits and two runs, which came on Chris Coste’s home run in the second inning, but was otherwise pleased with his three innings against the Phillies.

“It was a positive day for me,” Shields said. “One bad pitch, that was it.”

Bullpen makeover
Reliever Troy Percival, Trever Miller, Gary Glover and Dan Wheeler have one thing in common.
“We’ve been in a lot of bullpens,” Percival said.

With that in mind, the trio when to Tropicana Field on Wednesday and offered suggestions for a little tweaking down in the pen.

Sure do.

The way the bench is the players have to look sideways to watch the game.

They are blocking the view of fans.

There is no place for them to stretch.

That will change this season.

“Just found a little better area for us to hang out,” Percival said. “We just kind of moved to an area in the right field corner with some high-backed seats that we can look through the fence there and we’re not right in front of the fans. And then we’ll have a little retreat where the bathroom is, we can have our stretching tools where we can get loose.”

This & That
The Rays have hit four home runs this spring, all on the road. All four went to left field, including opposite field shots Thursday by Iwamura and Pena … Ben Zobrist’s debut in center field was cut short by Thursday’s rain. He will start there Friday … Willy Aybar will play first base Friday … Crawford had a double and a triple. He also impressed Maddon when he crossed to third on a ground out to third by B.J. Upton in the first inning.