Dragnet What Happened to the Devil?: Sox at Rays

Clearly, that's the question to ask on a first trip to Tampa Bay this year, no? Why drop the Devil from the name? Surely, the Rays were trying to shake things up and "liven up" the brand, which they could probably have made a case to do after each of their seasons in existence. Still, the Rays? Why not just scrap the whole sea-life motif and go with a big, 80's Hypercolor logo of Ray Charles across the front of the jerseys if we're not going to call them the Devil Rays, or the Sting Rays or, well, whatever. We digress.

Still, after two straight disheartening losses after a long and impressive winning streak, a Dome Sweet Dome start for Tim Wakefield might be just what the doctor ordered. It's certainly what Wakefield ordered to continue a recent rebound after a slow start in another park where he traditionally has been particularly effective: Toronto. Now, he's getting a look in Tampa, where he's a won a nice round 10 in the past.

Unfortunately for the Sox, Wakefield and batterymate Kevin Cash - who miraculously has stayed healthy while Jason Varitek continues to struggle with a killer bout of the flu - are facing off against a guy whose already beaten Boston twice in a very brief career. Sure, Matt Garza gave up three runs against the Sox in a 2006 spot start, but he only allowed one across five innings last year when he was back in Minnesota before the Delmon Young deal that brought him to Florida's Treasure Coast. As the Rays are finding, he really could be a nice piece of booty himself (female readers, feel free to judge whether that's a pun or not). Here's the full breakdown of the matchup heading into it, via Baseball-Reference as always.

There's other news, of course, as always seems to be the case when the team hits the road on a Friday, i.e., when you'd think there wouldn't be much news. Late last night Gordon Edes broke news of left hand surgery for Bobby Kielty, a move which all but kills potential Coco Crisp deals for the time being. Kielty is the replacement designate for Senor Covelli if Boston ever bites the bullet and makes that move, but they haven't budged yet, perhaps in part because of Kielty's hand injury. It's an interesting dilemma, but likely would only be significant in the long run if aftereffects from the surgery linger until the trade deadline, when the Coco market might truly heat up. And, just to ensure that Friday would be a bumper day for surgery ruminations, there's this disturbing piece of news that can be found if you scroll down here. According to Sox Prospects, Nick Hagadone, the team's first pick in last June's draft, who was off to another blazing start with the Greenville Drive, at that, is slated for Tommy John surgery after tearing his collateral ulnar nerve. It's a huge blow for a guy who was making a name for himself in the team's system already. Remember, Masterson and his ilk were right were Hagadone is right now not long ago. Now he's stuck rehabbing until June 2009 ... at least. Definitely a blow to system depth, which - as Papelbon, Buchholz, Lester, Masterson, Pedroia, Lowrie, Youkilis and we could keep naming guys here if we really wanted to - go to prove has become a nice little strong suit for the team with a "B" on it's hat.

Now, to those Rays. Anyone else in for a little Ray Charles mural painting on a jersey? We couldn't do much worse than those jerseys above, could we?

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