Steamy Sunday in Texas with no Floyd

The late afternoon start only makes it slightly more tolerable as gametime temperature likely will still be in the mid-90s as the Rays seek to sweep the Rangers before departing for California.

The Rays will do so without Cliff Floyd, who manager Joe Maddon decided to keep on the bench again in favor of playing Willy Aybar at first base, with Eric Hinske as the DH. Maddon said there was nothing physically wrong with Floyd, that it was more a matter of wanting to keep Aybar, who is 5-for-17 with four doubles since coming off the DL, involved. Floyd, on the other hand, is 1-for-12 on the road trip.

Jonny Gomes will serve the second day of his five-game suspension. Otherwise all seems good for the Rays. The Rangers are even doing them a favor, resting MLB RBIs leader Josh Hamilton and always tough SS Michael Young. Here are the lineups:

Rays
Iwamura, 2b
Crawford, lf
Upton, cf
Hinkse, dh
Longoria, 3b
Aybar, 1b
Navarro, c
Gross, rf
Bartlett, ss
Garza, p

Rangers
Kinsler, 2b
Catalanotto, 1b
Murphy, rf
Bradley, dh
Boggs, lf
Byrd, cf
Laird, c
Vazquez, ss
Duran, 3b
Mathis, p

Comments

[Danny Boy]

Garza in right field? Young? You might want to check the roster...

[ben bolt fan]

Garza has been a huge dissapointment for a good hitter in rightfield. Yes he might be struggling with the bat, but Young will come around before Garza will. Right now Bartlet was the primary player in the trade for his defense and his hitting chips in enough to consider him the better of the two.