Twins 3, Rays 2

Former Ray Brendan Harris homers, Nick Blackburn pitches six strong innings and Minnesota beats former Twin Matt Garza to avoid a weekend sweep.

Percival trying to work his way back

RHP Troy Percival may not be retiring - yet - after all.

Manager Joe Maddon said he met with the veteran closer, who is going back to California in effort to work to get his arm healthy enough. That's the primary concern. At that point, Percival could potentially work his way back to pitch at some point this year.

No decision has officially been made. Maddon had said initially that he wouldn't be surprised if Percival, 39, retired. But Maddon said Percival is now working with a chiropractor, and if he can get healthy, he could try to make a decision on whether he'll be back with the Rays this season.

 "He's going to continue to work on trying to get the feeling back in his arm, right shoulder down through the bicep area to his elbow," Maddon said. "We're just on hold."

For starters, Rays-Twins, with no Upton

UPDATE, 12:47: Manager Joe Maddon confirmed that he was indeed just giving Upton the day off  (and said he'd consider using him for defense late in the game) and that on Tuesday, Upton will be back in the leadoff spot.

Also, there is some trepidation about Matt Joyce making his first-ever appearance in CF (yes, at the Trop) today, though he did some extra work this morning with OF coach George Hendrick.
 

NEWS: The Rays lineup has a different look, and a different hitter on top today as Ben Zobrist bats leadoff and newly called up Matt Joyce plays center and B.J. Upton gets the day off, giving him the double-dip manager Joe Maddon likes to arrange with Monday's scheduled day off.
 
Plus, Evan Longoria gets a partial rest day as the DH as the Rays go for their first three-game sweep of the season.

The lineup:
Zobrist, 2b
Crawford, lf
Longoria, dh
Pena, 1b
Aybar, 3b
Joyce, cf
Gross, rf
Navarro, c
Brignac, ss
Garza, p

Z

Tampa Bay Rays call up Matt Joyce, send down Dale Thayer

The Tampa Bay Rays have called up OF Matt Joyce and sent down RHP Dale Thayer.

Joyce, the Armwood High product who was on the opening day roster, will get the chance to play, either in rightfield or at DH, manager Joe Maddon said. Joyce is expected to be in the lineup Sunday.

He was hitting .315 at Triple-A Durham with five homers and 27 RBIs in 41 games. Joyce was 1-for-10 in three games with the Rays before being sent down when B.J. Upton came off the DL.

Thayer appeared in three games, allowing eight hits and five runs (three earned) for a 5.06 ERA, in his first big-league experience.

In swapping Joyce for Thayer, the Rays will again have 13 position players and 12 pitchers, with seven relievers.

Crawford stolen base streak ends

LF Carl Crawford's stolen base streak was snapped in the third inning Saturday, ending a stretch of 32 consecutive steals (dating back to last season).

Crawford had reached base on an infield single, following a 10-pitch at-bat, knocking in the Rays first run. Then, LHP Francisco Liriano threw to first as Crawford started to run to second. Justin Morneau threw to ex-Ray Brendan Harris, who tagged Crawford out.

Crawford, the major league stolen base leader, had been 30-for-30 this season.

Crawford had the longest active streak in the majors since Jimmy Rollins swiped 39 in a row (Sept 1, 2007-July 19, 2008).

For starters, Rays vs Twins

LHP David Price will get the start tonight as the Rays take on the Twins.

Some pre-game news: Manager Joe Maddon said that DH Pat Burrell got another round of shots into his neck yesterday, in an effort to him recover from the neck strain he's been battling since late April. Maddon said they will re-evaluate him on Tuesday, and see where he's at.

RAYS

The Rays:
Upton, cf
Crawford, lf
Longoria, 3b
Pena, 1b
Aybar, 2b
Zobrist, ss
DIllon, dh
Kapler , rf
Hernandez, c
Price, p

- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

 

Rays 5, Twins 3

Tampa Bay starter James Shields pitches seven strong innings and Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria hit home runs to lead the Rays past the Twins.

For starters, Rays-Twins, with Upton on top

UPDATE, 6:30: Sorting through all the injury updates may take a while, but the bottom line is this - the Rays still don't know when DH Pat Burrell (neck stiffness) will be back, but don't think it's going to be extraordinarily long; SS Jason Bartlett (left ankle sprain) may be out longer than the original two weeks; RHP Chad Bradford (elbow surgery) is doing well and will soon take his rehab to Double-A Montgomery; LHP Scott Kazmir (right quad strain) is starting a program to get his leg and then his mechanics right; LHP Brian Shouse (left elbow strain) has no timetable.

Also, Maddon and executive VP Andrew Friedman will meet soon with RHP Troy Percival, and Maddon said he still feels Percival may opt for retirement.

Got all that?

That was the bulk of manager Joe Maddon's pre-game session, though he did say he will continue to use Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar at second, and once Bartlett returns Reid Brignac as well.
 
NEWS: Ignoring the opinions of a certain Times columnist, manager Joe Maddon is sticking with B.J. Upton on top of the Rays lineup tonight as they seek to break a five-game losing streak.

The Rays:
Upton, cf
Crawford, lf
Longoria, 3b
Pena, 1b
Aybar, dh
Zobrist, 2b
Gross, rf
Navarro, c
Brignac, ss
Shields, p

And the Twins:
Span, lf
Mauer, c
Morneau, 1b
Kubel, dh
Cuddyer, rf
Crede, 3b
Harris, ss
Tolbert, 2b
Gomez, cf
Baker, p

Iwamura says he wants to stay with Rays after rehab

 

Akinori Iwamura, left, is driven to a press conference in a golf cart by George Hensley, right, at Tropicana Field Friday May 29, 2009. Iwamura was injured during a collision at second base in Miami earlier in the week. [JAMES BORCHUCK, Times]

Tampa Bay Rays 2B Akinori Iwamura hopes to return to the Rays next season after recovering from knee surgery. Iwamura is in the last year of his contract, the Rays hold a $4.85-million option for next season.

Iwamura said he hopes to return to field as soon as possible, that the knee injury was the most pain he had ever been in and after reviewing video of play said "I hope this doesn't happy to any other player."

 Iwamura met with media Friday for first time since diagnosis of torn ACL and season ending surgery.

 "I'd like to express my feeling that it hurts me a lot, not only physically but mentally, that I cannot play in the field and I cannot contribute to the team," he said through translator Tateki Uchibori. "But next year, I promise that I will be back for the fans and hopefully everything works out on my side, And I'd like to get back on the field as soon as possible. It's a disappointment for me at this point, but hopefully I'll get back and show you some quality baseball."

 Iwamura said he doesn"t have anything to say to Florida's Chris Coghlan, who caused the injury. Iwamura said there was no way for him to avoid the contact as he was trying to turn a double play.

Midday sports report

Tom Jones discusses the news of the day and tells you what we're working on this afternoon at tampabay.com in our latest "Midday sports report.''