Rays vs. Braves

When/where: 1:40 today; Tropicana Field

TV/radio: Sun Sports; 620-AM, 680-AM (Spanish)

Promotions: Kyle Farnsworth bobblehead to first 10,000 kids 14 and under

Probable pitchers

RAYS: LH David Price

(6-2, 3.10)

BRAVES: RH Tim Hudson

(2-1, 3.96)

On Price: Hehas won five of his past six starts, including allowing three runs over seven innings against Toronto last week. He won his only career start against Atlanta in 2010, giving up two earned runs in five innings.

On Hudson: He has pitched well, allowing two earned runs or fewer in three of his four starts this season. He is 7-1 with a 2.71 ERA in 11 career starts against Tampa Bay.

Key matchups

RAYS VS. HUDSON

Carlos Peña 6-for-27, HR

Jeff Keppinger 9-for-17

Luke Scott 0-for-6

BRAVES VS. PRICE

Dan Uggla ...

Rays executives believe they plan for everything.

But when outfielder Brandon Guyer reported soreness in his shoulder at the start of last week, meaning they would be without their second-, third- and now fourth-string centerfielders, they found themselves pulling essentially an all-nighter to find a replacement.

They looked at four or five players who could handle playing centerfield and ended up making a Wednesday morning deal with the Phillies to get Rich Thompson.

The lesson, executive VP Andrew Friedman said, was simple: You can't ever, ever, ever have enough depth.

"The greatest challenge of the last six weeks has been the concentration of injuries on the position player side," he said. "It's almost being glossed over now, but B.J (Upton), when he was out for the first few weeks of the year, that kind of started ...

Nothing gained

The Lightning has drafted 20 goalies in its history. Here is the list, overall draft position and year, and games played for Tampa Bay:

Player drafted year games played

Derek Wilkinson 145 1992 22

Tyler Moss 29 1993 0

Zac Bierk 212 1995 26

Evgeny Konstantinov 67 1999 2

Michal Lanicek 148 1999 0

Brian Eklund 226 2000 1

Alexander Polukeyev 233 2000 0

Joseph Pearce 135 2002 0

Fredrik Norrena 213 2002 0

Vasily Koshechkin 233 2002 0

Jonathan Boutin 96 2003 0

Gerald Coleman 224 2003 2

Karri Ramo 191 2004 48

Kevin Beech 165 2005 0

Riku Helenius 15 2006 1

Torrie Jung 183 2007 0

Dustin Tokarski 122 2008 5

Michael Zador 148 2009 0

Jaroslav Janus 162 2009 0

Adam Wilcox 178 2011 0

ST. PETERSBURG

Don't strike out, the kid said to himself. Whatever you do, don't strike out.

After all, this was the first at-bat of his career. And who wants to embarrass himself as he is saying hello? Besides, his team was ahead by 10 runs, and things had turned so ugly that the opponent had a backup catcher on the mound to finish things up. Heroics could wait for another day. Couldn't they?

So young Rich Thompson swung at the first pitch he saw, a fastball, and the ball bounded up the middle …

… and eight years later, the ball sneaked through the infield and into centerfield.

Finally.

In the meantime, Thompson spent an eternity stuck in the minor leagues, the purgatory of baseball. Night after night, year after year, Thompson kept swinging, and still, his telephone did ...

ST. PETERSBURG — What made Saturday's first start of the season different for Alex Cobb was treating it the same as any other.

He woke up around 10 in his Clearwater house, borrowed one of his buddies' cars for the drive in, stopped at a Subway for lunch (turkey/bacon) and pulled into Lot 10 at Tropicana Field feeling not only that he had been there before, but that he belonged.

Then he went out and showed it, delivering exactly the kind of performance that can make the Rays' loss of Jeff Niemann more tolerable in a 5-2 interleague win over the Braves.

"There wasn't that adrenaline rush that I had in previous call-ups," Cobb said. "It was more just a normal, routine day."

His teammates and manager used more colorful terms, as Cobb, the 24-year-old summoned from Triple A to fill the ...

The Lightning's preliminary pursuit of Finnish goaltender Riku Helenius is one of the more fascinating developments of the offseason.

Not because Helenius is the immediate answer to the team's problems in net — as assistant general manager Julien BriseBois said, Helenius is considered a "prospect" — but because it shines a light on one of the Lightning's greatest franchise failures:

It never has developed a goalie — not even a consistently reliable backup.

Of the 20 goalies Tampa Bay has drafted, Karri Ramo, the 191st pick of 2004, has been the most successful, playing 48 Lightning games from 2006-09 before being traded to the Canadiens.

Even Helenius, drafted 15th overall in 2006, had to go to Europe for his star to rise.

That sorry record, particularly in drafting, has consequences.

Consider 18 goalies have played for the Lightning since Nikolai ...

Steven Stamkos said he missed playing for Canada at the world championship that wraps up today in Helsinki, Finland, but does not regret the decision to rest and rehabilitate his aching left shoulder.

"It feels good," the Lightning center said of the irritated bursa sac with which he played the last month of the season.

"It was just nice to get that month of rest and relax and make sure it was healthy so it didn't hinder me when it came to training."

Stamkos, 22, who this season became the 20th NHL player to score 60 goals, was in Tampa on Saturday to receive the Award of Excellence from the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Tamp Bay, given to "outstanding role models who give of their time to charitable causes."

He said he expects to this week begin his ...