Rays 4, Blue Jays 1

Matt Garza pitches effectively into the eighth and Tampa Bay hits three homers to set a club record with 41 for the month en route to a series-clinching victory and its seventh straight win.

Rays set club record for most homers in month

When B.J. Upton ripped the first pitch he saw Tuesday into the left-field seats at the Rogers Centre, he helped the Rays set a club record for most homers hit in a month (39), topping their total from August 2005 and August 2008.

The Rays entered Tuesday's game tied with the White Sox and Rockies for most homers in June in the majors.

- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

For starters, Tampa Bay Rays vs Toronto Blue Jays, without Evan Longoria

Update 5:23 p.m. Manager Joe Maddon said he just wanted to give Evan Longoria a day off, and that he was fine.

You may see Longoria get a day off more often until his sore left hamstring gets back to 100 percent.

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The Tampa Bay Rays will go for their seventh straight win tonight, and will do so without third baseman Evan Longoria in the lineup.

Willy Aybar gets the start at third, his second straight start (he was at second on Monday).

Manager Joe Maddon said Monday he wanted to get Aybar in the lineup more, to get him at bats. But this is probably also an opportunity to rest Longoria, who has battled left hamstring soreness this month

Rays lineup
Upton cf
Crawford lf
Aybar 3b
Pena 1b
Zobrist 2b
Burrell dh
Gross rf
Bartlett ss
Navarro c

-- JOE SMITH, Times Staff Writer

Tampa Bay Rays Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria in close races in All-Star voting

Tampa Bay Rays LF Carl Crawford and 3B Evan Longoria are involved in close races as voting for the AL All-Star team comes down to the final days.
 
Crawford is fifth among outfielders (with 1,442,175 votes) in the latest totals released today, though less than 200,000 votes behind third-place hold Josh Hamilton (1,635,781). Another problem for Crawford is that the Angels Torii Hunter is between him and Hamilton (with 1,490,800). Hamilton has been on the DL but is rehabbing and said he plans to play if elected. 

Longoria (2,988,363) remains the leader by a large margin over Alex Rodriguez for the starting spot at third, but is also in the running to surpass Yankees SS Derek Jeter (3,046,813) as the leading vote-getter.

Among other Rays, Jason Bartlett is a distant second (1,419,499) to Jeter at shortstop and Carlos Pena (767,088) finally made it into the top five among first baseman.

The starters and reserves will be named on Sunday. After fans elect the eight starters, eight reserves and eight pitchers are chosen from the players vote. AL/Rays manager Joe Maddon gets to pick the final seven, plus the five players or pitchers who will be on an additional ballot for the 32nd spot. He has to make sure every team is represented and that there are 12 pitchers on the roster.

Online voting continues through Thursday night at mlb.com. 

Midday sports report

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

Rays 4, Blue Jays 1

Jeff Niemann pitches 7¹/₃ strong innings to outduel Toronto ace Roy Halladay, Carl Crawford and Pat Burrell hit homers and Tampa Bay wins its sixth in a row to move 1.5 games behind the wild card-leading Yankees.

For starters, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Toronto Blue Jays, minus Ben Zobrist

Updating 6:20 p.m. Manager Joe Maddon had a couple reasons for starting Willy Aybar at second base today instead of Ben Zobrist.

First, he wanted to get Aybar some at-bats. With Zobrist playing so well this season, it's been tough to get Aybar in (this will be his third start since June 11), but Maddon pointed to what Aybar can do when he's ready.

Aybar had the game-winning sacrifice fly as a pinch-hitter in the ninth Saturday, and is hitting .306 vs right-handers.

Said Maddon: “You’ve seen all the big moments he’s had recently for us, and to just sit him for long periods of time really bothers me."

Zobrist cooled off in the Marlins series, going 1-for-8, so resting him against Jays ace Roy Halladay could be a good thing.

In other news, don't expect to see LHP J.P. Howell or RHP Chad Bradford tonight. Howell pitched in the last three games (two wins and a save) and Bradford - recently activated from the DL - pitched back-to-back.

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The Tampa Bay Rays will face the Toronto Blue Jays here in Toronto for the first time this season.

Jeff Niemann will start for the Rays, with Roy Halladay making his return from the disabled list tonight.

The Rays lineup looks the same, only with Willy Aybar at second base instead of Ben Zobrist.

Rays lineup
Upton cf
Crawford lf
Longoria 3b
Pena 1b
Aybar 2b
Burrell dh
Gross rf
Bartlett ss
Navarro c

-- JOE SMITH, Times Staff Writer

Rays 5, Marlins 2

David Price allowed just one run on two hits and struck out four in 6 1/3 innings to earn his second win of the season. B.J. Upton hits a home run in the 3rd inning and the Rays become the quickest team to get 100 stolen bases and 100 home runs before the All-Star break.

Tampa Bay Rays make history ..... or not

UPDATE, 3:57: Actually, the Rays just did more research and determined that they were not the first team to get to the 100-100 mark before the break, but the fifth team, most recently before them the 2003 Marlins. They are the quickest team to get there, in their 77th game.

With CF B.J. Upton's third-inning blast, the Tampa Bay Rays became the first team in major-league history to total 100 stolen bases and 100 home runs before the All-Star break. The Rays came into the game with 116 steals and 99 homers.

For starters, Rays-Marlins, eyeing a sweep

UPDATE, 12:40: Not much news in manager Joe Maddon's pre-game session, though he did saw how impressed he was with second-round draft pick SS Kenny Diekroeger, who is deciding between the Rays and Stanford. Maddon was further impressed with Scott Kazmir's return on Saturday, though Kazmir said he wasn't as comfortable as he had hoped and should be better next time out.

Also, if the Rays hit a home run today, it will make them the first team in MLB history to have 100 steals and 100 homers before the All-Star break. There has been at least one home run hit in all 38 games played at the Trop this season, the only stadium in the majors in which that has happened.

The Rays are preparing for the final game of their series with the Marlins and interleague play.

The lineup, with David Price on the mound:
Upton, cf
Crawford, lf
Longoria, 3b
Pena, 1b
Zobrist, 2b
Burrell, dh
Bartlett, ss
Kapler, rf
Navarro, c
Price, p

And for the Marlins:
Coghlan, lf
Bonaficio, 3b
Ramirez, ss
Cantu, 1b
Uggla, 2b
Ross, cf
Hermida, dh
Paulino, c
Carroll, rf
Miller, p