PITTSBURGH (AP) -Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Carlos Pena was activated off the 15-day disabled list Friday following a 3 1/2 weeks layoff with a broken left index finger and immediately went back into the lineup.
Only not in his usual spot.
To give Pena time to readjust, manager Joe Maddon batted him sixth against the Pirates and may keep him lower in the lineup until he regains his batting stroke and timing. Pena had 11 homers and 35 RBIs before getting hurt, mostly while batting cleanup.
“His whole thing is to ease back into it. We’re playing great baseball and we want to keep rolling, so we’re not making too many changes,” Pena said. “He’s got my best interests at heart and, more importantly, the team’s at heart, and I’m completely fine with that.”
The Rays aren’t fine with Major League Baseball’s decision Friday to not reduce second baseman Akinori Iwamura’s three-game suspension for his role in a June 5 brawl in Boston. The fight began when the Red Sox’s Coco Crisp charged the mound after being hit by a James Shields pitch; Shields was suspended for six games, but missed only one start.
Crisp’s seven-game suspension was cut to five games, but Iwamura lost an appeal to have his penalty cut to two games or one.
Iwamura will sit out the final two games of the Pirates series and the first game of the Red Sox series that begins Monday in Tropicana Field. Willy Aybar will start with Iwamura out.
“I’m baffled by it,” Maddon said. “I don’t understand it at all. I thought it should have been reduced, it’s way too severe and, furthermore, the guy who created the whole moment gets his reduced by two. None of that makes any sense to me.”
While Maddon doesn’t understand the ruling, he doesn’t want it to become an issue with his team, which won nine of 12 before arriving in Pittsburgh.
“We accept it, we move on, we’re not going to cry about it,” Maddon said. “I’m not going to make a stink that the Red Sox were reduced and we were not. I don’t agree with the decision, I think it was wrong, but we’ll live by it and not cry about it. … We’re going to play baseball and it’s over.”
Maddon was hesitant to plug Pena back into the middle of a batting order that produced 27 runs during a three-game sweep at Florida that ended Thursday. Pena couldn’t take batting practice for three weeks, and he played only one rehabilitation game Thursday night in Vero Beach, Fla., before rejoining the Rays.
“It’s one of those things that will linger for a while until it’s fully healed, so we’re taking certain precautions with it, such as padding,” Pena said.
Pena, injured while being hit by a Justin Masterson pitch June 3 in Boston, started 56 of the Rays’ first 58 games. He was leading the AL East contenders in home runs and RBIs when he was hurt, but subsequently missed 19 games.
“I don’t want to put everything on his shoulders too quickly,” Maddon said. “It (the injury) was to his hand; it’s a critical part of hitting, so to thrust him back into the 4-hole and put that kind of pressure on him, I didn’t think it was fair to him or us. We’ll get him going, he’ll get his timing, then we’ll move him back to the 4-spot.”
To make room for Pena, the Rays optioned infielder Ben Zobrist to Triple-A Durham.
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