Pena feeling good

By ROGER MOONEY
rmooney@bradenton.com
FORT MYERS — Carlos Peña hit his first home run of the spring Monday when he drilled an opposite field, two-run home run over the left field fence at Hammond Stadium for all the runs in the Rays 3-2 loss to the Twins.

Peña was happy to go yard.

“Always feels good when you hit the ball hard the other way,” he said. “That’s really good. That’s what every hitter wants to feel, that you can do that. So it felt really good to be able to drive that ball the other way and against a lefty.”

That would be Twins pitcher Brian Duensing.

Peña, hitting below .200 last week, upped his average to .233 with two hits Monday.

“He’s been having good at-bats,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “The swing is short.”

And the swing is almost there, Peña said. He’s almost to the point where he feels comfortable with hands at the plate.

“The No. 1 priority for me this spring was to be 100 percent healthy, that was my number one priority and, obviously, I want to be swinging the bat well, feeling good at the plate, and I think I’m accomplishing both things,” Peña said.

The Gold Glove first baseman said he still feels a little soreness in his lower abdominal muscles, which needed surgery in early January. But that soreness comes from putting them through the grind of swinging a bat.

“So that makes me very happy,” Peña said.

Garza sharp
Matt Garza faced his old team for the first time since the trade, though that was not on his mind during his six innings against the Twins.

“It really didn’t matter to me,” he said. “I had to come out and get my work in. The big thing comes in about a week, 10 days. I just came out here and pitched and worked on my game.”

The right-hander, who has the third spot in the Rays rotation, allowed three runs on eight hits. He walked one batter and struck out five.

“I attacked with my fastball,” Garza said. “They knew it was coming, the geared up for it, and they didn’t put good wood on it.”

Maddon said Garza could have gone another inning, despite throwing 98 pitches in his six innings. Garza will throw five Saturday afternoon against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

“We’re rolling to the best part of the season, so I’m ready to go,” Garza said.

Percival strong again
Closer Troy Percival pitched his fifth perfect inning in seven outings this spring.
What impressed Maddon was the quick-step to the plate Percival used when blowing a fastball past Carlos Gomez for the second out in the eighth.

“I like the idea he was playing with that even though there was nobody on base,” Maddon said. “Whether it was to mess with the hitter’s timing or work on it when there is a runner on base, I’m glad that he did it.”

NOTEWORTHY
The Rays released infielder Morgan Ensberg on Monday. Maddon said they had no room for Ensberg at Triple A Durham so this would allow him to land a spot with another organization ... Lance Cromier continued to impress Maddon with another scoreless inning Monday ... Jason Bartlett had two hits. He’s batting .341 ... Akinori Iwamura was 0-for-5 and dropped his average to .091.