Rays try again against Red Sox

The Rays are sending out the same lineup tonight as they try to reclaim sole posession of first place from the Red Sox, with the tough assignment of facing ace Josh Beckett. The game - once again - is not sold out.

*CF B.J. Upton (strained left quadriceps) took some swings again today, one day after running on the Tropicana Field turf. Upton said he's "definitely" not ready to be back out in the field, and doesn't know when he'll return to the lineup.

Upton mentioned possibly pinch-hitting, but manager Joe Maddon said he still isn't sure when and if that would happen.

*Speaking of Maddon, he sported a new mohawk of his own today, joining about a half a dozen Rays with the same haircut. Maddon had it cut last night in the name of "unity."

Backup C Shawn Riggans returned after spending several days in the hospital following a surgery to clean up an infected bursa sac. Riggans didn't know if he'd be able to return at all this season, saying that he was merely glad doctors caught the infection when they did, as "it could  have been a lot worse."

*On the Red Sox side, J.D. Drew has returned but will not play. And Jason Bay, who has been a Rays killer as of late, left the team this afternoon to be with his pregnant wife, whom he expected to soon go into labor.

RAYS
Iwamura, 2b
Bartlett, ss
Pena, 1b
Longoria, 3b
Floyd, dh
Navarro, c
Hinske, lf
Gross, rf
Perez, cf
Sonnanstine, p

RED SOX
Ellsbury, lf
Pedroia, 2b
Ortiz, dh
Youkilis, 1b
Lowell, 3b
Kotsay, rf
Lowrie, ss
Varitek, c
Crisp, cf
Beckett, p

Comments

[Frank is a Loser]

Root for your community LOSER. Back to second place for you. Please, go ahead and sell that run down trailer.

[brad]

Shouldn't the final be 3-1 since that was a ground rule double?

[Bill]

Hey Sox fans...........you suck @ss!

[Go Rays!!]

FEEL THE HEAT!!!

[Wally]

Gotta love those Pink Sox!!!!

[Wally]

RAYS WIN! RAYS WIN! RAYS WIN!!!!!!!!

[Haha]

Back in second, Sox fans. How's our a** smell from there?

[Bill]

The Rays should petition to be put in the NL. That way, the stupid @ss Sox fans and Yankme fans would eventually convert over time.........

[Wally]

RAYS WIN! RAYS WIN! RAYS WIN!!!!!!!!

[Frank]

Dear Attendance,

I'm so sorry. How can I ever make it up to you? I've learned my lesson and now will blindly follow whomever you tell me to. No, no. I owe it to you to move away. I'll put the house up for sale in the morning.

LOL!

[Attendance]

Sox and Yankee fans ragging on Rays attendance is ridiculous. YOU LIVE HERE. You are supposed to be Rays fans. If even half of you were Rays fans, they wouldn't have a problem with attendance. No other team has this problem anywhere close to the Rays. Not even close. Rays attendance isn't pathetic, YOU are pathetic. YOU are the problem with Rays attendance. Move the F to Boston or New York if you love them so much. If you can't support your community, pick another one, and get the F out of mine.

[Bill]

Great veteran move by Floyd to stick the leg out......way to take one for the team down in an 0-2 count!

[Bill]

Swing the freaking bat guys!

[Wally]

Looks like you can chalk one up for the Florida hillbillies, huh Anthony? It'll be over by 10:15

[Wally]

Jerry Meals is an idiot. At least this one with Pena went our way

[Anthony]

"The Red Sox don't care about you."

And the Rays don't care about you, because you're a Florida hillbilly and they're moving to Vegas

[Get a clue Alexa]

Alexa, you were wrong with your original 1st round picks remark and you are wrong with the amended one too.

Can you name all the Rays first round picks they've traded? There are only two... Delmon Young and Dewon Brazelton. They got Garza and Bartlett out of Young, but they got nothing out of Brazelton. That's it.

BTW, the Rays don't have any starters who will be free agents before the 2010 season, including the entire starting rotation. So they have a couple more years before they have to worry about salaries.

And exactly who WASN'T surprised that the Rays are in the playoff hunt this year? NOBODY predicted it. People were predicting maybe 2009 or 2010, but NOT 2008.

Soooo, do you have any other theories you want to throw out there without actually knowing whether or not they are even close to true?

[Frank]

Dear Go Rays,

wow, you've opened my eyes. i feel so used. sob.

are you serious with that crap?

[Johnny]

Who are the Devil Rays clown radio announcers?

[Go Rays!!]

Hey Red Sox fans at the trop tonight. I have some news for you. The Red Sox don't care about you. They do nothing in your community. Do they come out and sign autographs for you when they come here? Rarely. Your only mission in life is to embarrass the home team. You root against the Rays and it gets all over ESPN and the Boston papers, but nobody thanks you. If it wasn't for the Rays you would NEVER get to see your favorite team. If you're from Boston and flew down to root for your team, this doesn't include you -- because the Red Sox do things in your community. When the Sox thank their fans, they thank the ones in Boston who come out to their home games, not bandwagon fans who throw on the Sox jersys so they can be on the "winning" team. I guess you've just been too busy to go to a game before 2004. You'll rarely if ever experience a game in Fenway, rarely if ever be there for their "victory" parades. Your best hope is to go into our house and root against the home team.

One other thing. Don't ever call yourselves Rays fans. Don't say "I like the Rays except when they are playing Boston." "I hope the Rays do great this year." Any true Rays fan would never root against the Rays for ANY reason.

By the way...Stay out of our FanFest too.

[Tim]

Someone please teach Perez how to bunt. C'mon, I learned how to bunt when I was 8.

[Frank]

now the scorer's come to his senses.

[Frank]

they gave pedroia a hit on that? unbelievable!

Hey Bill:

"Don't even look at the attendance for Boston......what you do need to look at is their attendance vs. the AL average in those years......it wasn't until 1986 that they drew more than the Average! What a joke you guys are."

What the heck are you talking about?? I just checked and going back to 1967 the Red Sox have averaged more fans at Fenway vs the AL average for every year but two. (while playing in the smallest park in the league)

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/rsoxatte.shtml

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/rsoxatte.shtml

[Anthony]

I heard the Rays are moving to Vegas

[Bill]

Don't even look at the attendance for Boston......what you do need to look at is their attendance vs. the AL average in those years......it wasn't until 1986 that they drew more than the Average! What a joke you guys are.

[jo]

Don't forget..The Florida housing economy is one of the hardest hit. Tourism and business everywhere in the the state is way off. We love the Rays and we attended more games in previous years. This year has been tough on our business and we not able to attend as musch as we want to. The low attendance has nothing to do with lack of support.

PLEASE STOP MAKING ATTENDANCE COMPARISONS TO THE 1950s and the 1960s!!

To try and draw an analogy between what happened attendance wise to the Sox and yanks in the 1950s and 1960s to what the Rays are experiencing now is foolhardy at best.

If you look at the attendance figures for the 1950s and 1960s the numbers were low for ALL TEAMS. It was simply a different era. A down time for the baseball. Bill James (ever heard of him?) in his historical baseball abstract has a chapter titled

"The Fifties nobody talks about: Baseball in trouble".

Baseball was in serious trouble for a multititude of reasons. (big cities in our country in the 50s and early 60s were dying. Boston at the time was a mess and no one wanted to go into the city. Boston of the 50s and 60s does not even remotely resemble the Boston of today. Nearly every ballpark in baseball in the 1950s and 1960s was built between 1900-1915 and were not very pleasant places to be. People started watching on television and there was even a campaign in the 50s that said TV MUST GO!!) The recent popularity in baseball occured in the 70s (in part due to the '75 WS) and has continued until today. (strike had an impact for a few years.)

[mo]

Hey .. as long as we're enjoying the Rays why worry about what everyone else is doing .. forget attendance! Enjoy this ride! Who knows when or if it will ever happen again

[Alexa]

Roman,
I feel bad for the franchise and the players, and certainly don't want to insult anyone. Just saying it doesn't surprise anyone that they are successfull now, as they should be. I agree that the farm system is their bread and butter. It's the same for the Twins as well. But, you say there aren't many 1st rounders? They've used many of their 1st rounders on trades in the past because they cannot afford big contracts, which is smart. But, after this winning season, they can no longer rely on top draft picks to either develop or trade for top players in the league.
What happens when these current players hit free agency? Rays can't afford to keep them. They will need $$$ or bargaining chips in a few years. They need to capitalize on the success of their team NOW through marketing and ticket sales. If no one is buying, that's a problem. That was my point.

Anyway, should be a good game tonight.
Prediction: Rays

[Saint Bobby Bowden]

That sure wasn't Kaz pitching Saturday night Auburn's 3 -2 win over Mississippi State! He needs to step it up big time next time or we'll be starting Xavier Lee in his place.

[Ryan]

To Alexa:

Here is a site showing just how many number 1 picks we have:

http://www.raysindex.com/2008/08/myth-busters-debunking-myth-rays-are.html

As that site shows, the Rays have 3 players on their 25 man roster that not every team had a shot at. Every other player could have been on any team had they been picked. So that point is not valid.

[Cheryl]

Amanda, if I were going to the game tonight...you bet I'd come by and say hello. We'll be watching it on the tube. I'll be in my Sox shirt and my hubs will be in his Rays. Its a long ride from Hernando on a school night. But my husband is going on Sunday with my youngest and some of his friends. We do what we can.

Have fun...sorry I got to say it...Go Sox!

[Roman]

Alexa I guess the Rays will have to continue to make smart moves like they have been to this point. Longoria and Upton are the only players that in the Rays daily line-up, that have been selected by the Rays in the first round. What what is your next argument? In the starting rotation, none of the players that the Rays have were selected by the Rays in the first round. IN the bullpen, same scenario. So, what's your excuse now? The players the Rays have are brought to the table by a good farm system, smart trades, and wise signings.

The tickets will sell there, Alexa. Just slow your roll.

[Amanda]

Alexa, I can tell you my plans for the immediate future: going to the game!
Been fun talking with you guys today. Time to head over to the Trop. Rays and Sox fans alike, I'll be in 120 if you wanna talk over a beer.
(Thanks, Cheryl!)

[Alexa]

Rocky,
I'm always here, my friend.
The bigger question is: Where were you and any other Rays fans?
Apparently not at the Trop.

The biggest question:
Now that your team has collected 1st round draft picks for the last decade, and surprising to no one, you're now successful, what are the plans for the future?

No more 1st picks.
No ticket sales.
Uh-oh.

Support your team! Tickets down there, are what? $25?

[RedSUcks]

See that's the ticket right there. The Rays should have impregnated Red Sox wives/girl friends/boyfrinds so that they were DUE in September. Terry would have to juggle the lineup and the Rays would have an advantage.

Of course Ortiz would still play since he has 4 wives and 6 girlfriends and being on the downlo.

[Cheryl]

sorry...win...not will. ooopppps

[Roman]

D,
The expos didn't have any of their home games shown on local television, and look how well their attendance went up.

Nice theory, not even close to the answer. Sounds to me like just another in a long line of excuses.

I too am a long time Rays fan. I heard all the excuses throughout the years on why no one is coming out to the Trop. In the past it was the team was so bad, no one wanted to see a losing team. Now? Yes, the attendence is up 15%, looks like the Rays may average 21,000ish in the seats, that's a nice departure from the 18, 000 average from a years back.

Just looking at the numbers of television ratings, merchandise, and slight increase in numbers I would call this year an extreme success off of the field. Now, I am convinced that the numbers next year will be extremely strong just in the season tickets sales alone.

Bottom line, save the hypothesis, let's root for the team with with the one syllable name, New York owner, a bunch of kids on the roster, and a great story to finish. The Rays are amazing team, and the Bay area will be behind them, I know that for fact. Go Rays!

[Cheryl]

Amanda...always love your comments. You are so right.

Charlie...come on brother...are you honestly gonna say that northerners would will a piehole stuffing contest to southerners??? Thats one contest, my money's on the south!

LOL...all in good fun folks...all in good fun.

Lets play ball!!!!

[rocky]

Boston fans only come out now that their beloved Sox are tied for first. We did not hear from you a few weeks ago when you were down 5 or when we took 2 out of 3 from you in Fenway.

On to the game, Rays catch a break with Bay out of the lineup, now they need to take advantage. I would prefer Aybar's bat in the lineup over Floyd but Maddon has made great moves all year so I am not going to complain. I do wish he had saved Price to start tomorrow night's game.

Rays need Pena and Longoria to come up big tonight...Go Rays..

[Alexa]

Charlie,

K-Mart rocks, Man!

Make fun of Sox fans, but uh, at least they HAVE fans!!!

[Charlie G]

Just got back from buying 4 tix for tonite and the slovenly clad Red Sox fans are drooling at the gate with their plastic k-mart gloves to get in and start stuffing their pie holes with wicked calories, like they need any more. Rays come out tonite with stitches in their lip from the knockout punch last night and a big chip on their shoulder. Rays take round tonite 5 - 3. GO RAYS

[yep]

Word Amanda, word.

[Amanda]

You guys know why the Times keeps posting these stories about our attendance, right? We all read them. Look at the comments. We might not *like* them, but we read them. In the age of digital journalism and increased support on advertising revenue as paper subscriptions fall, page hits are what keep journalists employed.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Marc et. al. don't like harping about the attendance either. But do you like every part of your job?

[d]

I grew up in Milwaukee as a kid and was an avid Milwaukee Brewer fan. This is a smaller market and when the team was at home the game was not televised on TV if it wasn't sold out. So we were used to watching road games and listening to the Brewers on the radio. By doing this it attracted more people to County Stadium to watch the game live. I am now a Rays fan from the beginning and can happily watch the game on FSN in the comforts of my home. I do go to a game occasionally but it is there for me to watch with great conveniance..nothing against it but I think it hurts attendance... believe me there are plenty of Rays fans watching and cheering at home.

[hacks]

They're still hacks. Post something original. I think that Peter Gammons had something negative to say about Rays fans......GO RAYS.

[hacks]

They're still hacks. Post something original. I think Peter Gammons had something to say let's post that.

[rocky]

Need a positive start tonight. Back on the winning track at home..Playoff spot can be locked up with a good week...Go Rays...

[Brian]

They're focusing on attendance because

a) It's embarrassing that there is a first place team that can't sell out the batcave they play in.

b) Maybe one day, the Rays aim to be a team that raises most of its payroll through the fan base, not the MLB profit sharing.

c) it's not the job of the newspaper to market the (privately owned) baseball team.