BOSTON — Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon cleared the air before Thursday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Much was made about the Rays not wanting to make up Wednesday’s rainout as part of a doubleheader Thursday. Maddon acknowledged before Thursday’s first game that it wasn’t an ideal time for the banged-up Rays to play a twin bill, but the Tampa skipper also helped to mitigate any criticism thrown his team’s way for complaining about the situation.
“Yeah, we wanted to just play one game today based on a lot of different factors,” Maddon told reporters Thursday morning at Fenway. “Of course we’d like to move it back based on a lot of things that are going on with us right now. But that didn’t happen. If it didn’t happen, you just go out and play. You don’t cry about it. You don’t make excuses about it.”
Maddon’s comments came on the heels of Tampa player representative Ben Zobrist pushing hard Wednesday to try to make sure the Red Sox and Rays didn’t reschedule Wednesday’s rainout for Thursday afternoon. Zobrist and the Rays didn’t get their wish, obviously, but at least Maddon wasn’t looking to make excuses before kicking off Thursday’s pair of contests.
