The Backyard Batting Cage

When Evan Longoria fielded a ground ball in the seventh inning of Thursday night’s game, something looked funny when he flipped the ball underhanded to second base.

Turns out there was something funny going on. The Rays turned the double play to close out the inning, but Longoria tweaked his left quadriceps in the process.

“Longo’s got a little bit of a strained quad,” manager Joe Maddon said before Friday’s series opener against the Mariners, a game the Rays won, 5-3, to move to the top of the American League East. “That play he made on that flip to second base, he kind of felt it, so we got him out of the game. He’s definitely not going to play during this weekend’s series. We’ll re-evaluate on Monday.

“Longoria is being examined by a doctor now. I’ll know more about that soon. Team trainer Ron Porterfield is pretty good about this stuff. He thinks it’s restraint. perhaps Longoria will be back by the middle of next week. That might be a reasonable time slot to get him back.”

An MRI performed on Friday revealed no tears.

“I’ll probably just take the weekend off, and re-evaluate after that,” Longoria said. “It’s definitely not something that’s going to keep me out for a prolonged amount of time.

“We’re in a good spot right now as a team, and like I’ve forever said, with the little things I’ve had before, I don’t want to go out there and try to play and hurt it further than I have at this point. But if there ever is a necessity for me to come back and play immediately, there is the possibility to push it. I feel better than I did yesterday, which is bright.”

Sean Rodriguez started at third on Friday night, and Dan Johnson could see duty at third on Saturday night, when the Mariners start right-hander Doug Fister.

Maddon is comfortable putting Johnson at third.

“Triple-A Durham manager Charlie Montoyo actually liked Johnson over there,” he said. “He liked him a lot, actually. Said he played an above-average third base there during the Triple-A season. He’s had a lot of work there, played a lot of games there. So we’ll see what it looks like. … I know D.J. will be up for the task.”

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