Pat Burrell is excited to face his former teammates

For a guy who left, Pat Burrell has seen plenty of his former Phillies teammates — spring training, two April exhibitions in Philadelphia and a trip back for their World Series championship ring ceremony.

Tuesday starts the final chapter, his first regular-season meeting against his old mates.

In a way, he sees it as old news. "What's done is done," he said. "We obviously turned the page."

But when he started thinking about standing in the batter's box facing old buddy Jamie Moyer, he acknowledged it will be something special.

"That makes it exciting," he said. "Truthfully, I'll be looking forward to it. It should be an exciting series."

Burrell hasn't done too well since joining the Rays, hitting .240 with just five extra-base hits and missing five weeks with a neck strain.

The Phillies have gotten a lot out of his replacement, Raul Ibanez (though he's hurt now), and are in first place in the NL East, but haven't played all that well either, and come to the Trop on a six-game losing streak.

The reunion, Burrell said, will be more than social.

"Big picture now, it's not a big deal," he said. "We need to start winning some games, that's the important thing. ... I haven't really followed what's going on, but I don't think they're playing very well so hopefully we can get a few games."



(tampabay.com)