Rays-Red Sox, day 1

The Rays and Red Sox are preparing for game 1 of the showdown series with lots of buzz around Tropicana Field.

Players continue to say they don't expect any continued hostilities stemming from the June 5 brawl in Boston, and Rays manager Joe Maddon said he fully expects to meet pre-game with the umpires for what will amount to a warning, joking that he was "being summoned to the principal's office.''

The Rays are without 2B Akinori Iwamura for the final game of his suspension; the Red Sox are without OF Coco Crisp for all three games as he serves the rest of his suspension.

DH Cliff Floyd left the Rays on Sunday to go home to Chicago following the death of his grandmother but is expected back by gametime and will be available to pinch-hit.

The Sox said they have dealt internally with the matter involving Manny Ramirez, who pushed down the team's traveling secretary, Jack McCormick, during an incident Saturday, and Ramirez is in the lineup at DH. "The clubhouse is a family and whatever happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse,'' Ramirez said. "Me and Jack, our friendship is good.''

Also manager Terry Francona declined to discuss the reported threat against some of the Red Sox players. "I guess it's part of what we are and what we do, and I don't think they'll be anything crazy coming out of it,'' David Ortiz said.

In other news, Rays 3B Evan Longoria was named AL Player of the Week, the first Rays rookie to be so honored, and there's been no announcement yet on the status of OF Rocco Baldelli, who had been rehabbing at Class A Vero.

[Manny Ramirez stretches before batting practice. James Borchuck, Times]

The lineups:
Sox
Ellsbury, cf
Pedroia, 2b
Drew, rf
Ramirez, DH
Lowell, 3b
Youkilis, 1b
Moss, lf
Varitek, c
Lugo, ss
Masterson, p

Rays
Upton, cf
Crawford, lf
Aybar, 2b
Pena, 1b
Longoria, 3b
Hinske, dh
Navarro, c
Gross, rf
Bartlett, ss
Shields, p

Comments

[Raymond The Rays Mascot]

Bandwagon Suxkers fan are an embarrassing fraud.
Stay classy Rays fans,

[Bill]

Where's the red sux fans now? You know they'd be trolling here if they had won.............

[CharlieRay]

Manny Ramirez beats up the team's traveling secretary and says our friendship is good. Glad he's not my friend. Next his hair stylist is going to get his A__ Kicked

[Andy]

So Manny thinks its OK to assault the people that work with him. And since he was in the lineup tonight, I guess the Red Sox are cool with that? Way to teach him a lesson!

[ShiGty]

Go Rays!!!!! Kick some Boxsox butt!!!

[Don Corleone]

The key to a series like this is winning game one. It can set the tone for the series, and at worst you can avoid the sweep. I predict the crowd to be 50% Rays fans, 25% Red Sox fans, and 25% Faux Sox a-holes. The once long suffering Sox fans have a virus in their midst, Faux Sox fan. You know; the band-wagon fan with his pre-faded cap that thinks Moon Man Bill Lee was sipping Tang with Neil Armstrong. He thinks that Bucky F&^%ing Dent is what happened when “ya cahr” got rear-ended on the Mass Pike. I hope the Rays win and the true Red Sox fan shame these Faux Sox jerks in their section to go home and wait for the next fad.