As I get word on Garza and the possible trade to the Cubs, I hear Soriano maybe considering being a setup man for the Yankees. “That door is open for a number of different reasons,” Soriano’s agent, Scott Boras, told ESPNNewYork.com.

Paying Soriano closer money for a set up position, would be something he would consider. Can you imagine the combo of  Soriano in the eighth inning with closer Mariano Rivera. Is this payback for Cliff Lee snubbing the Bronx?

“I don’t think there is a team in baseball where he could be asked to be a setup guy other than the Yankees,” Boras said. As Spring Training is upon us, I was really hoping for the Rays to keep Soriano. I put nothing past Boras, Cashman or the Yankees at this point. With Andy Pettitte’s unknown status, this could be a huge score for the Yankees bullpen.

Rivera getting up there in age, Soriano in his prime. I smell Soriano replacing Rivera in 2yrs, if this all comes to fruition. What Soriano did last season, was a huge factor allowing the Tampa Bay Rays to win the AL East. The Yankees witnessed that first hand.

How many sighs of relief did Soriano give us Rays fans while we were all ‘untucking’ ?

Jenny

Kristen Lee: Reportedly not happy with how the Yankees fans treated her.

During the American League Championship Series games in New York between the Yankeesand Rangers, fans were extremely rude to Kristen Lee, spitting and throwing beer in her direction and shouting obscenities.

Money has once again proven it’s power. Philadelphia’s bull pen is now stacked like crazy with; Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

Personally I’m glad this circus is over. I’m glad Cliff Lee is out of the AL. Also thankful for the blow to the Yankees ego. In other repetitive news… Farve, Farve and more Farve…

Ciao ~ Jenny

The Tampa Bay Rays offense caught fire after 26 innings against the Texas Rangers and they have managed to tie up the series and bring the fifth and final game back to the Trop tonight. This evening’s game will be a rematch of  both team’s top starting pitchers, Texas’ Cliff Lee against the Rays’ David Price, both left handed pitchers. There are three keys I think that will make a difference in tonight’s game.

1-It has been announced that tonight’s game is a complete sellout, even after the Rays ownership uncovered the outfield tarps and sold an additional 5,000 seats for tonight’s matchup. The Tampa Bay Rays have not lost back to back starts with David Price pitching the entire season. With the Trop sold out tonight, there needs to be a Metrodome-like amount of noise while Cliff Lee is pitching. Bring your cowbells, dinner bells, church bells, I don’t care. The key to defeating Cliff Lee is getting to him early, preferably in the 1st inning, get him off base and do not allow him to settle into a groove. Make Lee pitch deep into counts and run up his pitch count early.

2-David Price needs run support. Manager Joe Maddon has once again tweaked the lineup and has focused on a heavy right-handed batting lineup. Rocco Baldelli will not be occupying a spot tonight, and should never have been in te lineup in Game 1, regardless of sentimental feelings.

3- Tonight’s game is going to require an absolute team effort. 3B Evan Longoria has had 36 hours to rest his quad injury, but the Rays cannot put everything on his shoulders.  I’d like to see at least a base hit from 1B Carlos Pena against a left hander tonight. The Rays three headed monster in the bullpen of Grant Balfour, Joaquin Benoit and Rafael Soriano is waiting for the Rangers batting order, give them an opportunity to win this game and send Texas back home.

For those of you questioning Joe Maddon’s decision to go with Kelly Shoppach over John Jaso at catcher, once again Maddon decided to play the percentages. Shoppach and David Price have had a good rapport as pitcher and receiver this season and Shoppach is better against left handed pitching than John Jaso.

If Tampa Bay loses tonight, this will most likely be the last time that you see LF Carl Crawford in a Rays uniform. Every single one of you attending tonight’s game, make sure you give him the respect and admiration he deserves when he takes the field in the first inning and throughout the entire game.

The lineups have been released for tonight’s ALDS match-up between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers in game 5. As expected, Rays manager Joe Maddon has adjusted the Rays batting order once again and he has leaned heavy on the right handed batters in the batting order. CF B.J. Upton has been moved to the six hole, batting behind 1B Carlos Pena. Dan Johnson is the DH for tonight’s game, batting 7th. Kelly Shoppach is batting 8th while Sean Rodriguez is playing 2B and batting 9th.Rodriguez and Shoppach present a much better match-up scenario against left handed pitching and we all know how manager Joe Maddon loves to play the percentages in match-ups. We just have to hope that it works out tonight.

The Tampa Bay Rays lineup-

Bartlett ss
Zobrist rf
Crawford lf
Longoria 3b
Pena 1b
Upton cf
Johnson dh
Shoppach c
Rodriguez 2b

The Texas Rangers lineup-

Andrus ss
Young 3b
Hamilton cf
Guerrero DH,
Cruz lf
Kinsler 2b
Francoeur rf
Molina c
Moreland 1b

There is nothing like the final game of a baseball series. Tonight will be game 5 between the Tampa Bay Rays and it’s for all the marbles. One team goes home and the other advances to face the Evil Empire of the New York Yankees. Will Texas Ranger SP Cliff Lee silence the Rays bats once again? Can David Price rebound and have a dominant pitching performance? Will there be another bad officiating call? (see Michael Young’s check swing in game two)? 166 games comes down to 9 innings starting at 8:07 tonight at the Trop.

The Tampa Bay Rays traveled to Texas for game three bringing with them a team batting average of .125 after two games and for nearly 27 innings the Rays appeared frozen at the plate., outscored 11-1 in the first two games alone.  However, in the eighth inning of game three the Rays remembered that they actually can play baseball and decided to get in the game. Nothing like spotting your opponent 26 innings.Since the fifth inning of game three, Tampa Bay is batting .362.

The Rays will need another good night at the plate to advance. Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 1.52 ERA in his career during post-season play. Tonight’s game is exactly why the Rangers went out and acquired the veteran lefty. Yes, Lee did look virtually un-hittable in game one of the series, but Tampa Bay has beaten Lee three times this season. Joe Maddon will no doubt remind the Rays of that.

David Price is no stranger to big games. He pitched the final four outs against the Boston Red Sox in 2008 and he is going to need to channel that energy tonight. Price has made it perfectly clear throughout the series that he has wanted to pitch again to redeem himself for game one. Price and the pitching staff has now seen the ranger for four games and Price should have a much better idea on what to pitch to which Rangers batter. I’d like to see him work ahead in the count a little more in tonight’s game.

Hopefully, tonight’s game isn’t plagued with another controversial officiating call. This season has been marred with bad calls and if that isn’t a wake-up call to Bud Selig that instant replay needs to be expanded, I don’t know what is. I don’t expect that baseball or Selig will do anything in the off-season with instant replay, but it is blatantly obvious that baseball has issues. I’d like tonight’s game to be played between the two teams and the winner determined by the effort of one team over the other, not have an outcome based on an officiating call.

If Texas happens to win tonight, I will have to root for them over the New York Yankees. I do not want to see the Yankees return to the World Series again. According to the St. Pete Times, there are a few seats remaining for tonight’s game after the Rays organization removed the outfield tarp yesterday and added an additional 5,000 seats. Let’s pack the Trop tonight and remember, we need more cowbell!

This is a little more like it, the series between the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays is all even as the series now returns home to the deciding game 5 in St. Petersburg on Tuesday night. Will the Trop prove to be a home field advantage this time? Have the Texas Rangers lost their confidence? Will the real David Price show up to pitch game 5? These are all questions that will add to the drama in game 5.

In yesterday’s column I posed the question wondering when Evan Longoria would start hitting, and he responded with a 3-4 outing. 2 doubles, a home run and 2 RBI’s. In fact, the Rays as a team are starting to hit the ball. Sunday was the second consecutive game with double digit hits.

In his first post-season appearance, Wade Davis responded well while earning the win.

So, after being pushed to the brink down two games to none, the Tampa Bay Rays responded as they have all season on the road and tied the series up in Texas. It will all come down to one game. 9 innings. A rematch of the game one pitching match-up of Cliff Lee and David Price. You know that David Price wants to redeem himself.

At the end of the regular season, Price’s name was mentioned by some pundits as a possible consideration for the AL Cy Young. Cy Young pitchers respond when the pressure is on, and on Tuesday night, it’s time for Price to respond.

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Joe Maddon rolled the dice, and after game 1, it looks as if he lost. Tampa Bay’s Ace, David Price was hammered for 4 earned runs in nearly 7 innings pitched, while Texas Rangers SP Cliff Lee dominated the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa came into this afternoon’s game with a team batting average of .247 and didn’t fail to disappoint by not hitting the ball. 6 hits in 34 at bats. 1 for 10 with runners left in scoring position. Rocco Baldelli as the DH, are you freaking kidding me? Carlos Pena, your contract is up after this season my man, I hope never to see you in a Rays uniform again. A typical Carlos day 0-3, three K’s and a walk, way to contribute. The only player to contribute any damn thing for the Rays offense this afternoon was Ben Zobrist who hit a home run in the 7th inning.

So, tomorrow at 2:37 pm, our fearless Rays manager, who was separated at birth from the host of the Price is Right game show is now playing Plinko with the Rays future. James Shields is 0-4 in the month of September with an ERA of 7.79. Shields has given up 50 hits in his last 32 innings. Even when he starts for the Rays and the offense gives Shields the lead, he can’t seem to hold it and always allows the other team right back into the game.

The decision to start Shields tomorrow is an absolute crapshoot.  Shields could come out and pitch like he did at home against the New York Yankees on August 1st, striking out 11 Yankees and only allowing 4 hits in 7.1 innings or he could come out and pitch as he did 7 days after the best pitching performance of his life and surrender 8 earned runs in 4 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays in a 17-11 loss.

The Rays season is now likened to nothing more than a contestant dropping a Plinko chip on the Price is Right set tomorrow, Drew Carey or Joe Maddon at the helm, it doesn’t matter, the balance of the Rays post-season play rests on the shoulder of one James Shields, and Rays fans should be very concerned about that. Please tell me that this team didn’t play 162 games for nothing.

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Cliff Lee (10-6 2.77) was acquired by the Rangers prior to the trade deadline from the Seattle Mariners. Lee was expected to shore up the Rangers pitching staff and while he is still a dominant pitcher, he hasn’t made the impact one would have thought. Lee has made 8 starts for the Rangers since being acquired on July 9th. In those 8 games he has won 2, lost 3 and has three no decisions. Lee did strike out 10 last night but should have exited after the end of the 7th inning because in the 8th, Tampa strung together a series of singles to mount a 4 run inning. Rafael Soriano came on to close it out in the 9th only needing 11 pitches to strike out two and record his 34th save of the year.

David Price looked better than his last start against Detroit, striking out 8 but walking 5. However what was most impressive to me were the Tampa Bay bats. The Rays did manage 9 hits, but it wasn’t the number of hits but the timing. The Rays have struggled mightily this season with runners in scoring position and last night they were 5-8 with RISP.It was nice to see 1B Carlos Pena back in the lineup. Pena drew the first walk of the year Lee has issued to a left handed batter.

Let’s hear it for the Detroit Tigers! They defeated the Evil Empire last night and coupled with the Rays win, the Rays and Yankees are now tied for first in the AL East.

Tonight’s game features the Rangers starting Tommy Hunter (9-1 3.38) going against Matt Garza (11-7 3.92) for the Rays. Hunter has pretty much owned the Rays in his short career going 2-0 2.33 ERA against Tampa. Matt Garza has been stuck on 11 victories since pitching the clubs first no hitter back on July 26th, going 0-2 3.05 ERA.

In related Rays news, Tampa announced that they have signed top draft choice Josh Sale and Drew Vettleson. It is being reported the Sale’s signing bonus was 1.62 million dollars and Vettleson received 845,000.00 Tampa had until Midnight on Monday to sign their draft picks and announced that they were able to put 30 of their 53 draft picks under contract this season.

Tropicana Field will be buzzing tonight with the Tampa Bay Rays squaring off with the Texas Rangers and a marquee pitching matchup. David Price versus Cliff Lee, all the feeling of a playoff game. Texas enters the game with a comfortable 8.5 game lead in the AL West and appear to be cruising to a playoff berth. Tampa comes in to tonight’s game with the second best record in baseball at 71-46 and despite a rocky start in the month of August, have climbed back to only 1 game behind the New York Yankees.

The good guys will be wanting to see David Price (15-5 2.84) become the American League’s first pitcher to win 16 games this season. Tampa has been plagued with inconsistent offense in the past few weeks and facing the Rangers Cliff Lee (10-5 2.57) will be no easy task. While the Rays have already beaten Lee twice this year, he holds a 6-4 2.51 ERA lifetime against the Rays. Rays SP Price has never beaten the Rangers and holds a 0-2 9.45 ERA against Texas.

Price will need a better performance than his last outing against the Detroit Tigers. Price did record the win, but only managed to last 5 innings and was erratic at times. Texas starts out the three game series tonight, second in the majors with a team batting average of .276. Tampa will get to see former Rays prospect LF Josh Hamilton tonight. Hamilton has become the superstar that the Rays envisioned when they drafted him in the first round of 1999′s draft. Hamilton is batting .362 with 26 home runs and 80 runs driven in, that offensive production sure would look great in the Rays offense right now.

This will be the final series between the two clubs for the regular season, but there is a very good chance they could see one another in the post season. So, get you’re popcorn ready, this is going to be a great one tonight.

These are words most Rays fans aren’t accustomed to. In fact, money has always been an issue since the Rays joined MLB.

So, who is out there that the Rays could acquire and what would the cost be? Peter Gammons Tweeted last night that perhaps a BJ Upton for Seattle P Cliff Lee might be in the works but manager Joe Maddon said he knew nothing of an impending deal after the Rays victory. Fanhouse reported on Monday that a Cliff Lee to Minnesota deal was in the works, but nothing has occurred so far.

Lee, is a lefthander with an 8-3 2.34 record so far this season. Lee’s best season was 2008, when he went 22-3 with the Cleveland Indians. He is in the last year of his contract and a trade for Upton would solidify the Rays starting rotation, but the Rays are in more need of a bat.

The St. Pete Times threw some names out there this morning as possibly players the Rays might be targeting.

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Washington Nationals 1b, Adam Dunn. Dunn 30, would bring another lefthanded bat to the Rays. Dunn is having a solid year (17-49-.273) Dunn has hit 38 or more homeruns 6 times in his 10 year career.

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Chicago White Sox 1B Paul Konerko. Konerko, 34, would provide a powerful bat from the right side of the plate. He’s having a good season and was on a home run tear early on in the season. Konerko (20-58 .295) has been rumored to be on the White Sox trading block since the start of the season but the White Sox have climbed right back into the AL Central race and is one game behind Detroit.

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Houston Astros 1B Lance Berkman. Berkman 34, is having an off year,( 9-40-.243) but he plays for an Astros team which has been horrible this season. Berkman is a switchhitter that brings tremendous power, hitting 25 or more home runs in 8 of his 11 seasons and driving in over 100 RBI’s in 6 of those years. Berkman is just 4 years removed from his best season, 2006 he hit 45 homers and drove in 136 runs. Berkmn will likely be somewhere new after July 31st as the Astros are well out of the playoff hunt, 14.5 games out of the lead in the NL Central.

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Chicago Cubs 1B Derrick Lee. Lee 34, is a right handed bat. Lee’s season (10-36-.230) has been a disappointment. He is hitting nearly 50 points below his career BA. Lee has always played in the National League.

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Milwaukee Brewers RF Corey Hart. Hart, 28, is the youngest of names being tossed around. His contract is up after this season and is currently playing for a very affordable 4.8 million but will see a huge pay increase in 2011. Hart has hit 20 home runs 3 of the past 4 years and is currently riding a 15 game hitting streak. He currently has 19 home runs, 61 RBI’s and a .284 BA.

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Baltimore Orioles 2B Ty Wigginton’s name is being thrown around as well. Rays fans recognize this players name, as he played with Tampa in 2006-2007. Wigginton is buried on a horrible Baltimore squad and would most likely welcome a return to the Bay area. Ty currently leads the Orioles in homeruns and RBI’s with 14 and 44 respectively. Wigginton’s best season was with the Rays in 2006 when he hit 24 homers and drove in 79 runs.

It remains to be seen what, if any moves the Rays will make in the next 3 weeks, but any trade should not include P Jeremy Hellickson.