32-year old lefty swinging 1B Carlos Pena needs to change his style of hitting a bit. Most teams have the shortstop playing on the right side of 2B along with the second baseman and the first baseman making it very hard to get a ball through the infield. If he could just start swinging late more he would get a ton of hits because the 3B usually plays where the SS would in a normal set-up. He has bunted for a couple of hits to that side of the field but he needs to start hitting the ball on the ground that way as he would get a hit almost every time he did it. Pena has played in 93 games for the Rays this season and he is 68 of 325 (.209 avg, .761 OPS) with 49 runs scored, 20 homers, 60 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Pena also needs to cut down on how hard he swings to try to make more contact as he has whiffed 103 times already this year. He needs to try to quit hitting a homer every single time he’s at the plate.

25-year old righty swinging CF B.J. Upton has got to be driving the Rays’ front office crazy. He has the physical ability to be one of the very best players in all of baseball but he’s just too damn lazy to make it happen. The Rays should be looking to trade Upton as they have a replacement in AAA (Desmond Jennings) almost ready to take over. Upton has played in 73 games for the Rays this year and he is 58 of 260 (.223 avg, .710 OPS) with 46 runs scored, 7 homers, 29 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. He has now played in 586 games in six years with the Rays and he is 564 of 2,159 (.261 avg, .756 OPS) with 335 runs scored, 56 homers, 255 RBIs and 147 stolen bases. Upton is a big tease for the Rays but at this point I think they should trade him as he’s playing like he doesn’t want to be in Tampa anymore.

The Tampa Bay Rays got no hit tonight by 26-year old righty starting pitcher Edwin Jackson. Jackson threw 149 pitches (79 strikes) tonight in putting away the Rays. He walked 8 batters while whiffing 6 to put the Rays away. This is the third time the Rays have been no hit over the last two years (Dallas Braden and Mark Buehrle). Edwin Jackson pitched in parts of three years for the Rays working in 87 games (63 starts) in which he was 19-26 with a 5.08 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. Incidentally the player Jackson was traded for (Matt Joyce) made his debut for the Rays tonight and he was 0 for 4 with 6 men left on base.

The Rays decided to send 26-year old switch hitting catcher Dioner Navarro to AAA after today’s game with the Padres. Navarro has played in 36 games for the Rays this year and he is 22 of 105 (.210 avg, .576 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 1 homer and 7 RBIs. Navarro just wasn’t performing as well as John Jaso or Kelly Shoppach so he very much deserved this demotion. The Rays have recalled 26-year old lefty swinging outfielder Matt Joyce to replace Navarro on the roster. Joyce has played in 35 games in A+AAA-ball this season and he is 38 of 121 (.314 avg, 1.004 OPS) with 24 runs scored, 5 homers and 20 RBIs. He also was showing solid discipline at the plate walking 32 times while whiffing 29 times. Joyce has played in 103 games in the majors leagues in his career so far and he is 67 of 274 (.245 avg, .824 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 15 homers and 40 RBIs. The Rays hope that Joyce will give them some pop out of RF.

25-year old righty swinging starting center fielder B.J. Upton just doesn’t seem to have a clue at the plate right now. He has played in 47 games for the Rays this year and he is 35 of 164 (.213 avg, .675 OPS) with 29 runs scored, 5 homers, 19 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Upton has also whiffed 48 times already this season which is awful. The Rays are kind of stuck right now because Desmond Jennings and Fernando Perez are off to slow starts in AAA and there is really no one to replace him with at the major league level so they will likely have to just grin and bear it by putting his name in the lineup. He is not the same player he was just a couple of years ago. In 2007-08, Upton played in 274 games in which he was 287 for 1,005 (.286 avg) with 171 runs scored, 33 homers, 149 RBIs and 66 stolen bases. But he had major shoulder surgery shortly after the World Series in 2008 and he hasn’t been the same since. He has played in 191 games so far the last two years and he is 170 of 724 (.235 avg) with 108 runs scored, 20 homers, 74 RBIs and 56 stolen bases. Upton has had bouts with laziness in the past but he hasn’t shown any of that this year. If he starts to get lazy while he’s struggling with the bat, Joe Maddon will have no choice but to bench him.