Florida @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Jun 12, 2010 ) Florida 5, Tampa Bay 6
The home runs keep coming for Carlos Pena. The hits, well, that’s another story.
Pena looks to continue his home run streak as the Tampa Bay Rays play host to the Florida Marlins in the final game of a three-game series Sunday afternoon.
The two teams have split the first two games.
Pena has homered in six straight games for the Rays, boosting his team-leading total to 15. He homered in the first inning on Saturday night off Florida’s Ricky Nolasco and the Rays went on to a 6-5 victory to maintain their one-game lead in the American League East.
Pena has seven homers in the six games and earlier in the week became the franchise’s all-time home run leader.
The major league record for home runs in consecutive games is eight - shared by Pittsburgh’s Dale Long (1956), the New York Yankees’ Don Mattingly (1987) and Seattle’s Ken Griffey, Jr. (1993). Pena is the first player to homer in six straight games since Frank Thomas did it with Oakland in 2006.
Now for the bad news.
Pena is still trying to climb over the .200 mark, a number he has not seen since May 6. On Saturday, he finished 1-for-5 and enters today’s game at .196.
The Rays belted three home runs in Saturday’s game. Carl Crawford, who sat out three games during the week for what manager Joe Maddon called a refreshing period, cracked his sixth of the season. Shortstop Sean Rodriguez later hit his fourth homer.
The Rays won’t be getting any long balls from outfielder Gabe Kapler for at least 15 days. Kapler was placed on the DL with a strained right hip flexor before Saturday’s game. Tampa Bay recalled outfielder Justin Ruggiano from Triple-A Durham.
Kapler was batting .217 with one homer and eight RBIs in 38 games. Ruggiano, who has appeared in 52 games with the Rays during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, was hitting .291 with four homers and 19 RBIs in 44 games this season with Durham.
In other injury news, the Rays expect shortstop Jason Bartlett to return from the DL on Tuesday. Bartlett is recovering from a strained right hamstring and has resumed hitting and running.
And catcher Dioner Navarro has been available to play the past two games but has not seen any action while recovering from a stiff neck. He could be in the lineup today.
Jeff Niemann will start for the Rays. Niemann (6-0) has been a major surprise, throwing at least six innings in every start this season while compiling a 2.48 ERA.
Chris Volstad starts for the Marlins, who are trying to win their first series from the Rays in three years. The Marlins had 10 hits in Saturday’s game but left 13 men on base.