Pat Burrell Exits Game With Injury; Jeff Bennett Optioned, Chad Bradford Ready

A couple of injury related notes from last night's loss. The neck injury that sideline Pat Burrell for 29 games earlier in the season was re-aggrivated during last night's game. Willy Aybar replace Burrell and there is a chance he could miss tonight's game. Burrell is still struggling at the plate, but has shown signs of power recently. His ISO for the last 25 games is a more Burrell like .241.

In an unrelated move, Jeff Bennett was optioned to Triple-A Durham. It was presumed that Bennett's optioning would make room for Chad Bradford, who is ready to return from the DL. However, with Burrell's injury the Rays may opt to call up a position player like Justin Ruggiano or Matt Joyce to help an already short bench. I find it odd that the Rays have carried eight pitchers for so long especially when they had an option on Bennett.