Kazmir will NOT pitch Sunday, Opening Day start in jeopardy

Kazmir will NOT pitch Sunday, Opening Day start in jeopardy

TAMPA – LH Scott Kazmir will NOT make his scheduled start Sunday against Detroit at Progress Energy Park.

That means there is a very strong possibility Kazmir will NOT make his third straight Opening Day start for the Rays.

“We just want to try and build up a little bit more arm strength before we put him back out there,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “He’s fine. There’s not a thing wrong with him.

“During the season, he probably would have pitched. But I just want to build up a little bit more arm strength with this whole thing.

Maddon doesn’t know when Kazmir will pitch in a Grapefruit League game. Kazmir will “play catch” before going back on the mound again.

“He is fine,” Maddon said. “There is nothing wrong. I just want him to be a little bit more stronger before we have him play in the game.”

It could be a couple of days before Kazmir throws again. Maddon doesn’t consider it a setback.

With Opening Day on March 31 and Kazmir not having pitched this spring, that assignment looks in serious jeopardy.

“We have to work that out,” Maddon said. “Probably definitely going to knock out the Opening Day assignment. We’ll have to see how we set it up after that.”

It’s not “out of the question” Kazmir could pitch the first week of the season, according to Maddon.

The Rays open with three games in Baltimore during a four-day stretch. Then, Tampa Bay goes to New York for four games, before its home opener April 8 against Seattle.


Crawford also scratched

Kazmir was not the only scratch.

LF Carl Crawford had two sore legs and was not on the travel squad Saturday to face the New York Yankees.

“C.C. just came up a little bit tight today,” Maddon said.

The manager blamed Crawford’s soreness on the wet field conditions Friday at Progress Energy Park, where the Rays play Toronto.

“Sometimes when you run on soft ground that can happen,” Maddon said. “I just took him out of the lineup.”

Maddon expects Crawford to play Sunday against Detroit. The Rays have a day off Monday before a back-to-back series with Philadelphia on Tuesday in Clearwater and Wednesday in St. Petersburg.

“He’s fine,” Maddon said. “Under different circumstances, he’s in there. There’s not sense of pushing.”


Gomes plans to appeal

OF Jonny Gomes plans to appeal his two-game suspension handed down because of Wednesday’s incident with Yankees 1B Shelley Duncan.


Hank Steinbrenner speaks

Yankee general partner Hank Steinbrenner had some comments on the incidents with the Rays in Saturday’s New York Post.

One had to do with the Yankees funding the Rays’ cause through baseball’s revenue sharing policy.

“I don't want these teams in general to forget who subsidizes a lot of them, and it's the Yankees, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets,” Steinbrenner said. “I would prefer if teams want to target the Yankees that they at least start giving some of that revenue sharing and luxury tax money back. From an owners’ point of view, that's my point.”

That drew a response from Rays owner Stuart Sternberg.

“Off the field, we are partners in trying to strengthen and grow the game of baseball,” Sternberg said via e-mail. “On the field, we expect our teams will compete with energy and passion, and none of us — whether as an owner, a player or a fan — would want it any other way.”

“He owns the ballclub,” Maddon said. “He has a right to say whatever he wants. I really don’t want to go back and forth with him. That’s his comments. That’s his perception of the situation, and I respect that.

“I have no comment on things that were said from the other side.”


Iwamura gets to first base with Duncan

2B Akinori Iwamura reached first base via walk in the fifth inning.

The big news there was he had to stand next to Yankee 1B Shelley Duncan.

Duncan came in spikes high Wednesday that led to both benches and bullpens spilling onto the field.

The two never made eye contact. There was one pickoff attempt from RH LaTroy Hawkins, but Duncan didn’t apply a tag.

“I couldn’t tell, either,” Maddon said if there were any conversation between Iwamura and Duncan. “I couldn’t tell.”

On the third pitch, Iwamura attempted to steal and was thrown out. His spikes were low.

Iwamura departed before the media was permitted in the Tampa Bay clubhouse.

Earlier in the game, Yankee 3B Alex Rodriguez ran through a stop sign by third base coach Bobby Meacham and was out at the plate by 10 feet. Rodriguez permitted himself to get tagged by Rays C Josh Paul.

“An out for the Rays,” Maddon said.

RH Jeff Niemann said he didn’t have any thoughts of an incident while on the mound.

“If you let that creep into your head then only bad things are going to happen,” Niemann saaid. “Throw the ball to the mitt. It doesn’t matter who’s in the box. Throw an outside fastball. Throw an inside fastball.”

Niemann threw a fastball away to Duncan, but came back with an inside fastball later in his first at-bat.

“It was a nicely played game in a sense,” Maddon said.


Game notes

Three Rays made highlight reel defensive plays: 1B Chris Richard, SS Jason Bartlett and Iwamura, whose came after a throwing error by Bartlett on a routine play.

Homering for the Rays were Richard, RF Eric Hinske, DH Hector Giminez, who hit high up on the batter’s eye in dead center field, and C Mike DiFelice.

The 25-year-old Giminez missed all of last season after undergoing surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Niemann worked the first four innings, allowing six hits and one run. He struck out one – SS Derek Jeter – without walking a hitter in his third straight strong performance of the spring. The run was the first surrendered by Niemann in eight innings.

“Bases loaded, one out, you’re one pitch away from getting out of it,” said Niemann, who got a double play to end the second inning.”

The Rays have been asking Niemann to keep the ball down in the strike zone on a more consistent basis. Maddon liked what he saw, along with a better arm angle and a more sharp breaking pitch.

The Rays made four errors, which drew Maddon’s displeasure.

In Lake Buena Vista, the Rays blew a 10-3 lead, but hung on to defeat Atlanta, 11-10.

LH Kurt Birkins walked off the mound after meeting with James Hickey and a trainer in the middle of his first inning.

C Shawn Riggans also left the game after getting hit in the face with a pitch.

RH Scott Dohmann, Birkins and RH Calvin Medlock combined to give up 10 runs in three innings, after starter RH Jason Hammel threw five scoreless inning of three-hit ball.

1B Carlos Pena homered off Atlanta starter RH John Smoltz.


Looking ahead

RH James Shields, now in line to get the Opening Day start with Kazmir being pushed back, will pitch today against Detroit at Progress Energy Park.

The Tigers are scheduled to start LH Dontrelle Willis.

LH Bobby Seay of Sarasota is on the Tigers’ travel squad.

Well that sucks for Rays fans. That sucks period. The Rays need Kazmir to dethrone the Yankees/Red Sox...okay, that isn't going to happen regardless but they have a better shot at winning with him.