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Rangers vs. Rays: Tampa Bay’s Lineup For Game Three

by Grant Brisbee
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Rangers Survive Late Innings To Beat Rays 4-3, Take Game 3
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The Rays employ their rightie-mashing lineup, such as it is, which means Matt Joyce moves from “de facto pitcher” to “cleanup hitter”:

Desmond Jennings - LF
B.J. Upton - CF
Evan Longoria - 3B
Matt Joyce - RF
Johnny Damon - DH
Ben Zobrist - 2B
Casey Kotchman - 1B
John Jaso - C
Reid Brignac - SSWhile Joyce was hitting in the #9 spot against lefties because of wicked platoon splits and inspired Joe Maddon chicanery, Reid Brignac is hitting there because he’s as close as it gets to a pitcher hitting in the AL.

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2011 - Reid Brignac 92 249 18 48 4 0 1 15 10 63 3 1 .193 .227 .221

Player AB BA OBP SLG OPS
Cliff Lee 75 .200 .208 .307 .514
Clayton Kershaw 71 .225 .267 .225 .492
Yovani Gallardo 68 .221 .254 .324 .577
Daniel Hudson 65 .277 .309 .369 .678
Joe Saunders 61 .197 .222 .213 .435
Mike Leake 55 .200 .214 .236 .451
Ryan Vogelsong 53 .226 .268 .245 .513
Livan Hernandez 46 .217 .217 .239 .457
Chris Volstad 46 .196 .213 .239 .452
Vance Worley 45 .222 .239 .244 .484
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2011.

But none of those guys can play a mean shortstop, which Brignac can, so he gets the start.

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