Crawford strives for feet, fingers to be MLB's lightest

NEW YORK - With six steals in the first seven games, Carl Crawford is off to a running start to add another American League stolen base championship to the one he won last year with 55.

But Crawford wants more than that.

"I don't want to win just the American League," he said. "I want to win it on both sides."

Crawford said he doesn't have a specific number of steals in mind, but figures he should be able to do better than last year because he knows so much more about what he is doing.

"I don't know if it looks like it's easy to you guys, but you take my speed and then you give me some knowledge of how to do it right, of course it's going to look easy," Crawford said. "I ain't bragging or nothing. I'm just saying I do have great speed, but I'm not just depending on my speed because I'm actually trying to learn what the pitchers are going to do, when they're likely to pitch out, and what kind of jumps I need to get."

Besides learning more about the pitchers, Crawford is determined to stay aggressive and in shape, and plans to be more brazen and attempt more steals of third (he has two already; nine last year).

"I don't know what I can do," he said. "It surprised me last year; I didn't think I'd have 55 bags last year. With that in mind, knowing that was just like getting on and running, and now I've got a little knowledge, I don't know. . . . I think if you can get 80 bags in today's game that's stealing a lot of bags. We'll see when it's all said and done."

Crawford's six steals are the most by an AL player through seven games since 1998, when Texas' Tom Goodwin and Detroit's Brian Hunter had six.

RAIN, RAIN: With rain falling since Monday night, the decision to postpone the game was made by mid afternoon, early enough that most of the Rays hadn't yet left for the stadium. Those who showed up worked out briefly.

The teams are scheduled to play at 1:05 today, though with more rain forecast for this morning, there was talk Tuesday the start time could be pushed back to mid or late afternoon. Both teams are off Thursday.

No makeup date was announced, but it is likely the game will be rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader in September, when the Rays are in New York for a four-game series Sept. 6-9. The Rays also visit New York in July, just before the All-Star break, but are scheduled to play 20 consecutive days during that stretch.

PITCHING IN: The postponement allowed the Rays to further rearrange their starting rotation.

Lefty Mark Hendrickson, who threw a seven-inning complete game shutout for Toronto in his only previous Yankee Stadium appearance, will start as scheduled today. Paul Abbott, who was to pitch Tuesday, will instead pitch on Friday at home against the White Sox. Still to be decided is whether to stay in order and pitch Jeremi Gonzalez on Saturday and Victor Zambrano on Sunday, or to keep Zambrano on a more regular schedule and pitch him Saturday and Gonzalez on Sunday.

MR. STEADY: Jose Cruz's streak of reaching base with a hit or a walk in 27 straight games (dating to Sept. 6 when he was with San Francisco) is the longest streak in the majors. Milwaukee's Geoff Jenkins went into play Tuesday with at 26.

MISCELLANY: The Rays already have been in first place longer this season than they had in their first six seasons combined - seven days. . . . Doug Waechter's debut at Durham was pushed back to Thursday, but he still will be on schedule to be called up to pitch for the Rays on April 24, if needed. . . . Zambrano and Cruz received consideration for AL Player of the Week, won by Chicago's Magglio Ordonez. . . . Top prospect B.J. Upton was placed on the temporary inactive list at Double-A Montgomery after leaving the team to attend funeral services in Virginia for his grandfather. He is expected back Friday.