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Tampa Bay still hasn’t announced its playoff roster. Maddon made it official Wednesday that left fielder Carl Crawford, a four-time AL stolen base champion, will return for Game 1 after being out seven weeks with a finger injury that required surgery.
He’ll bat fifth, rather his customary second. Still, adding the two-time All-Star who played in two instructional league games to show he’s ready, will provide a boost that was unexpected just a week ago.
“It’s just a matter of him being able to get back up to speed as quickly as possible. Instructional league games are not major league games, and they’re definitely not major league playoff games,” Maddon said. “But I don’t want to put any pressure on him to be all that. I just want to go out, relax and play.”
That goes for the rest of the young Rays, too.
“I want them to enjoy it. I want them to look around and take it all in a little bit. It matters,” Maddon said.
“I like to believe we’re building to that point that we’re going to be here on a consistent basis, but you never know. So while you’re doing it, enjoy it. I’m not saying just be happy you’re here, that if we lose, it’s OK,” he said. “No, enjoy it, suck up all that’s going on and let’s play our game and let’s keep moving forward. But respect this moment because you don’t know when it’s going to happen again.”
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