Rays David Price knocks himself out of game with improper toweling

Looking somewhat embarrassed, David Price admitted that he knocked himself out of Thursday's game against Detroit by over-toweling.

“I was sitting in the dugout wiping myself dry. I pulled the towel forward and it caught the back of my neck. I felt a little pop and there were some spasms,” Price said. “It’s the third time I’ve done that in my career. I don’t think it will impact my schedule and hopefully it will be all-right with a little rest and good night’s sleep.”

Price was scheduled to pitch three innings, but the towel incident that happened in the dugout between the second and third innings prevented him from going out to throw the third.

Rays manager Joe Maddon doesn't remember ever having a player knocked out of a game because of an unruly towel and couldn't resist having some fun with this incident, which might be labeled TowelGate Part III staring David Price.

"Lets have him stop toweling himself down or maybe we need some toweling practice," Maddon said. "David might need better technique when it comes to toweling. He has been doing it for 20 something years now, but apparently doesn't have it down yet.

"John Wooden used to have a thing where he would teach his players how to put their socks on to avoid players losing time because of blisters. Now, I am concerned we will have players lose time because of improper toweling. Maybe first day next year we will bring out the towel. We will never throw in the towel, but we might bring it out."

Other Maddon noteworthy comments: "I loved the way we ran to first base today. We ran hard and put a lot of pressure on their defense and that is one of concepts that we want to achieve on a daily basis."

Maddon said shortstop Sean Rodriguez suffered an index sprain on his finger in the Rays game at Fort Myers against the Twins. He said injured Luke Scott will remain out a little while longer, Sam Fuld would play Saturday and Evan Longoria would take batting practice. He has lefty Matt Moore scheduled to pitch on Tuesday.

The best thing about Price?

"There should be no setback for him because of this, but we've got to improve his toweling technique," Maddon said.

In his two innings of work, Price allowed three hits, walked one and struck out one throwing 38 pitches (24 strikes).

"It was the best I felt all spring, strength wise and body wise," Price said before he was done in my his towel.

David Price suffers neck sprain in game against Detroit on Thursday

Tampa Rays David Price suffered a minor neck sprain after finishing his two innings of work Thursday against the Detroit Tigers in the Rays split squad game at Charlotte Sports Park.

The lefty allowed three hits and a walk and a strikeout in two innings. He threw 38 pitches with 24 going for strikes in the Rays split squad game. No other information was released by the team.

Former Ray Delmon Young slammed a monstrous three run homer over the left field fence off lefty Cesar Ramos in the third inning that brought the crowd to its feet.

In two innings, Ramos was tagged for four hits, allowed three runs (all earned), walked two and struck out one.

Dowling and Blakely named to 2012 pre-season All Transfer Team

It's never too early to talk about college football, which might be good news for local standouts Jon Dowling from Southeast and former Manatee High running back Mike Blakely.

Both were selected to the 2012 All-Transfer team released by CollegeFootballNews.Com. Ironically both began their careers at the University of Florida where you might say they stayed long enough to get a quick lunch.

Okay that might be a stretch. But neither was there long enough to finish their freshmen year and both are ready to go in 2012: Dowling at Western Kentucky and Blakely at Auburn.

Dowling, who was rated among the top two or three cornerbacks in the country by some scouting services, figures to be a jack of trades and master of many for the Hilltoppers. WKU head coach Willie Taggart says Dowling will start at DB (either safety or CB) and see time at receiver.

Blakely was rated the 10th best running back by Scout.Com when he signed with Florida, but was unhappy with the new coaching regime and left. He will be battling returnees Onterio McCalebb and Tre Mason to replace Michael Dyer who transferred to Arkansas State.

All three will be vying to fill some big shoes. Dyer was the Tigers leading rusher and first team All SEC pick before he was suspended from the team prior to its bowl game and eventually left transferring to Arkansas State where he will play for new head coach Gus Malzhan, who was his offensive coordinator at Auburn.

Don't ever say college football gets dull! Both of these guys will get a second chance and lets hope everything works out for them this time.

Pena to make spring debut for Rays, Longoria still sidelined

Rays manager Joe Maddon said Carlos Pena would make his spring training debut Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins at the Charlotte Sports Park, but that he was still keeping third baseman Evan Longoria on the shelf because of his bruised right hand.

Maddon said Longoria's injury is not serious and with more than a month to go he didn't want to risk anything.

"He (Longoria) will get plenty at bats. We just want to make sure he can swing and not aggravate his injury," Maddon said. "Its nothing really horrible wrong with his wrist. There is a little discoloration and we thought it might influence the way he swings and that could cause other problems. He is fine and coming along great."

Wade Davis throws two good innings for Tampa Rays

Wade Davis, who is fighting for a spot in the Tampa Rays starting rotation, had a good outing in his springing training debut Monday against Baltimore at the Charlotte Sports Park.

The righthander went two innings, allowed one hit and struck out one. He threw 28 pitches with 20 going for strikes. On the offensive side, Ben Zobrist had the only hit for the Rays in the first two innings when he smacked an opposite field double to left.

Hellickson throws two innings in spring debut

On a unseasonably cold and windy day in their spring home opener in Port Charlotte, the Rays drew some cheers in the top of the first inning when shortstop Sean Rodriguez made a nice backup stab of a grounder and first baseman Matt Mangini made a similar nice back-handed scoop on his throw.

Jeremy Hellickson made his spring training debut and surprised the crowd when he came out to throw the second inning. The right hander threw 22 pitches (16 for strikes), allowed one hit and hit a batter.

USF win at Louisville should end bubble talk and put Bulls in the dance

Can we now stop this bubble talk!

The University of South Florida’s 58-51 victory over Louisville at the Cardinals home floor on senior night Wednesday night should be enough to get the Bulls their first invitation to the NCAA Tournament since 1992.

The Cardinals (22-8, 10-7 Big East) were ranked 18^th and are number 20 in the all important RPI rankings that the selection committee often uses to round out the last couple of teams for the tournament.

USF (19-11, 12-5) was 1-7 vs RPI top 50 teams coming into the game and the biggest criticism was the Bulls didn’t really have a solid “high” quality win.

“We won on the road. I don’t know (if we got in) we just got to keep winning. This is unbelievable I am so proud there are so many heroes in the locker-room,” USF head coach Stan Heath said after the game.

Jawanza Poland led the Bulls with 16 points and hit a big trey down the stretch that helped secure the win. Toarlyn Fitzpatrick was the only other USF player in double figures with 11 points.

Again the Bulls defense was spectacularly down and dirty especially beyond the arc holding Louisville’s long range bombers to 23.8 percent (5-21).