Longoria Is No Ordinary Rookie

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria sure has done a lot since being recalled from Triple-A Durham on April 12. He participated in All-Star Home Run Derby, became the first rookie with an all-star game RBI since 1962, appeared on HBO’s Costas Now, received a congratulatory bottle of champagne from a famous actress of the same last name (Eva Longoria), and hit his first career grand slam off one of the big league’s best pitchers (Roy Halladay). And that was all in the last five days.

The grand slam came in the sixth inning of the Rays’ 6-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday. In what was a 10-pitch at-bat; Longoria finally connected and drove the ball way over the left-field fence, sending the crowd at Tropicana Field into a frenzy.

The at-bat was more eventful than that. Longoria fouled two hard sinkers by Halladay off of the same part of his left ankle. He was heavily iced in the clubhouse after the game, but said he was fine.

Rays first baseman Carlos Pena was amazed at Longoria’s approach against the former Cy Young winner. “[It was an] unbelievable at bat. To stay focused after hitting the ball off the foot, to stay with his approach, and then come up with that huge hit, that says a lot about how good a hitter he is.”

Longoria said that with Halladay, he knew he was probably going to either “swing through it or foul it” off his leg. He called it one of his “prouder” at-bats, adding that Halladay “was just making pitches and it was all I could do with them until he threw one over the plate that I could handle.”

Longoria has played in 84 of 85 games since joining the Rays, and since his arrival, the team has gone 52-34. By all opinions, he is almost a lock to become the first Ray to win AL Rookie of the Year honors. He has hit 17 home runs and has driven in 57 RBIs.

With a nine-year, multi-million dollar contract, Longoria and the Rays are just in the infancy of what both hope to be a wonderful relationship.