Longoria at DH, dealing with plantar fasciitis

ST. PETERSBURG -- Rays slugger Evan Longoria started at designated hitter for the second consecutive game on Friday night and could be there for the rest of the weekend against the Royals due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

"Just a little plantar issue," Longoria said. "It's probably been bothering me for two weeks now. But it kind of gets to a point where I don't feel like I'm doing any good to go out there and run around on it. So I can DH and still be effective.

"... It's just standing around, really. It feels pretty good at the beginning of the game. And by the time the end of the game comes around, if I've been in the field, it gets pretty sore."

Longoria cited some of the recent long games played by the Rays for contributing to the problem.

"Some of those games in the Boston series, I was hurting by the end of the game," Longoria said. "My hope is that with a couple of DH days, stay off the turf here and then get the off-day going into Boston, that should give it enough time to be fine and I should be back out there."

Plantar fasciitis is a new physical problem for him.

"It's something I haven't dealt with before," Longoria said. "And it's pretty painful, so I can understand what Albert [Pujols] is dealing with over there in Anaheim. It's kind of a weird deal. But it's not going to keep me off the field. Whether it's DH or in the field, I feel like I should be over it by the off-day [on Monday]."

Rays manager Joe Maddon was asked if Longoria would be used at DH the rest of the weekend.

"I don't know, it's possible," Maddon said. "... But I'm not sure."

Longoria seemed to think he would quickly get over the injury.

"Hopefully after the off-days, it's going to be good," Longoria said.