With the Red Sox loss last night, the Rays pull even with Pink Hat Nation in the loss column. The Rays still maintain their 2 game lead in the Wild Card race over the A's.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Don't forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven't voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
• The Rays still have not received official word as to when Edwin Jackson will begin his suspension, which will likely be either tonight or Thursday (at the conclusion of James Shields' suspension). Tonight is also the last game of Carl Crawford's suspension with Aki Iwamura to begin his tomorrow. [St. Pete Times]
• "No one could have imagined the Cubs-Rays series would be a possible World Series preview"...Those are the Chicago Tribune's words. Not ours. Reading that and something comes to our mind. Something about a "cart" and a "horse"?? [Chicago Tribune]
  
• The Cubs are just the latest good team to face the Rays. They will be the fourth series of the last six that featured a team in first place and 26 of the Rays last 28 games have been against a team with a .500 record or better. [Tampa Tribune]
• In addition to the first to the Trop for former Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella, tonight's game also marks the first return to the Trop for the Devil Rays original manager Larry Rothschild, who is now the Cubs pitching coach. [St. Pete Times]
• Lou Piniella said that if he had stayed with the Devil Rays for another year or two, he probably wouldn't be the managing today. [Southtown Star]

''I was crazy enough to think I could win anywhere with anything,'' said Piniella, who won two World Series rings as a player in New York and another as a manager in Cincinnati. ''Not crazy, but confident in my ability...At that time, you go on a road trip to New York, Boston and Toronto, and if you win one game in each city, it's a good trip,'' Piniella said. ''From a professional standpoint, I wasn't prepared for that. I'd won everywhere I'd been. I didn't enjoy the losses. And it wasn't going to get any better, so I got out.''

• Gerry Hunsicker was on The Show with Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy and talked about making deals at the trading deadline...Hunsicker said "...deals arent easy to make, atleast significant deals and you’re probably going to have to overpay regardless of what you get because of the supply and demand factor..." Overpaying is not something the Rays ever want to do, so don't expect any major deals from the Rays before the trading deadline. [MLB on XM]
  
• Cubs f/x breaks down the pitchf/x of Scott Kazmir. [Cubs f/x]