Friday, April 5. Game 8: Rays beat Giants and Evan Longoria, 5-2

Rays 5, Giants 2

Record:  6-2

Attendance:     41,067.     Giants home opener.

            The Rays jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first when Ji-Man Choi and Brandon Lowe combined for back-to-back doubles before Yandy Diaz muscled a broken bat homer to left for two more runs and Kevin Kiermaier launched a monster 437 foot home run to right center.  Austin Meadows drove in the last run with a double in the seventh.  And Tyler Glasnow, the pitcher who went 0-5 in spring training, pitched six more scoreless innings for his second win of the season.  Wilmer Font, who gave up two runs in two-thirds of an inning in the home seventh, was replaced by Adam Kolarek, who got them out of the inning but loaded the bases in the eighth before striking out Gerardo Parra.  Diego Castillo then came in and threw a double play ball to the newly acquired Kevin Pillar.  Bases loaded, nobody out:  no runs scored.  You have to be lucky of course, but that was mighty fine pitching and defense at a critical moment.  Kudos to your Tampa Bay Rays.  For the bottom of the ninth, Manager Kevin Cash brought in José Alvarado for his third save of the season.  Neat and efficient. 

But not without a little more drama.  With two men on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Evan Longoria, Mr. Tampa Bay who has been toiling for the last two years in San Francisco Bay, represented the last out.  This is the same Evan Longoria who loves the spotlight, thrives on dramatic moments, and rises to the occasion.  He did it for the Rays for ten years.  Alvarado with his signature 100 mph fastballs got two early strikes on him.  Longoria fouled off a pitch protecting the plate, but then he put a good swing on what Alvarado thought would be his strikeout pitch, fouling it straight back.  It was a near miss.  You could feel that Longo was locked in to battle Alvarado, that he wouldn’t be denied—and he did get around on the next pitch lofting a high fly ball to right where it was caught for the last out.  There was an audible sigh of relief from the Rays dugout—and from the Rays fan base back home.  Longo’s Hollywood script had been rewritten at the last minute, his magic neutralized.  For the moment.      

            Tommy Pham reached base for his 40^th consecutive game as a Ray, and now has the team record in that category. . . . The Rays committed two errors in the game (Lowe and Choi) but managed the win anyway. . . . From the Rays’ perspective, this was a good game, despite a funky inning or two.  They managed a W on the home team’s home opener before a sold out stadium.  And it came on the heels of their worst performance of the year losing a 1-0 game to the Rockies in eleven innings and leaving 13 men on base.  They earned a night out in San Francisco.

Thursday, April 4. Off Day.

A day of rest for me too.

Wednesday, April 3. Game 7: A disaster from start to finish

Rockies 1, Rays 0, 11 innings
Record:  5-2

Attendance:     11,093       

           

This loss will hurt for a while.  The Rays came up empty over 11 innings, wasting two excellent chances in regulation time before Chaz Roe, on an 0-2 count, gave up the winning home run to light hitting catcher Chris Iannetta in the top of the eleventh.  It was all the more frustrating because they wasted good scoring opportunities in the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth innings, leaving a whopping 13 runners on base and going 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.  Slumping Willy Adames (now hitting .043 on 1 for 20 hitting) had the worst of it, coming up in the seventh with runners on second and third and one out.  He dropped a near-perfect bunt down the third base side and was safe by a hair, thus getting a hit, breaking his slump, and driving in what might have been the winning run. Except that the call was reversed on a challenge.  But then it was déjà vu all over again in the bottom of the ninth.  With runners on second and third and one out, again, Adames took a strike, then whiffed at a bunt attempt.  Manager Kevin Cash then called on Willy to bunt again, with two strikes, a bold but fatal move as Willy missed again.  Two outs.  Followed quickly by the third.  No runs.  Again.  Oh, and Adames struck out his other three at bats.  The game was a disaster from start to finish.

            More or less lost in the offensive futility was that they also wasted a second excellent start from Charlie Morton, who went six scoreless innings, striking out 6, walking 2, and giving up 4 hits.  He was followed by five relievers, all of whom were excellent—except for that one pitch by Roe to Iannetta.  There are going to be games like this over a 162 game schedule, but the Rays had better find a way to win them if they are going to compete in the AL East.

The Rays will have a day off tomorrow to lick their wounds and at the same time get ready for the Giants on Friday.  Bouncing back was a hallmark of last year’s team.  Let’s hope it is carried over into the new season.

            With his single to right in the first, Tommy Pham was on base for the 39^th consecutive game, tying Johnny Damon’s 2011 team record. . . .  Daniel Robertson was back on the field after being pulled for illness yesterday. . . . .  And Yandy Diaz’s ankle injury is not as serious as first feared. 

Attendance managed to break 11,000—by 93.  Pathetic.  Where is the Rays fan base?

Tuesday, April 2. Game 6: Brilliant Blake

Rays 4, Rockies 0

Record:  5-1

Attendance:  10,933       

            This one was all about Brilliant Blake Snell, who threw seven innings of two-hit ball striking out 13.  The Rockies seeing Snell for the first time were mismatched from the outset, experiencing the frustration American League teams reluctantly got used to last year in Snell’s Cy Young season.  Contributing offensively, Guillermo Heredia, who came to the Rays from Seattle over the winter, drove in two runs in the first, and Christian Arroyo, who was called up from Durham to take Joey Wendle’s place on the roster, drove in the fourth run of the game in the sixth, then dazzled defensively by starting a double play around the horn in the eighth.  Wilmer Font gave up a walk in his mop-up two innings, but was otherwise encouragingly perfect to finish the game off in style.  All told a solid outing from a team that is coming together nicely in the early going of the new season.

            Not even Daniel Robertson’s removal from the game due to illness could dampen Rays’ spirits, although Yandy Diaz’s removal due to an ankle sprain late in the game was a greater concern—but even that seemed to be a day-to-day problem rather than an IL problem.  And once again, roster depth softened the blow with Ji-Man Choi stepping right in for Diaz at first.  Tomorrow afternoon 35-year-old Charlie Morton goes against 24-year-old German Marquez, who just signed a contract extension locking him in for five years at $43 million.  The Rockies think they have their number one starter for years to come.  We’ll see tomorrow when the old master squares off against the young master.  Game time is 1:10.

            Both teams travel after the game.  The Rays have Thursday off before opening up a weekend set against the San Francisco Giants followed by three more in Chicago against the White Sox.  So beginning on Friday the fifth, we get to see if these Rays are going to be as good away as they are at home.  That’s how baseball unspools year after year, slowly, one game and one series at a time.  MLB is trying to speed the game up for the sake of those brought up in the Computer Age who value speed above all else, but baseball will never speed up enough to satisfy that generation.  Baseball is more like gardening, slow and carefully planned, both of them beautiful instruments of grace.

            For the second straight night attendance did not break 11,000.  A team this good with its ace on the mound should be selling out, even on a Tuesday night. Portland, Montreal, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville—even Newark, NJ are all licking their chops.

Monday, April 1, Game 5: José Alvarado vs. Nolan Arenado

Rays 7, Rockies 1
Record:  4-1

Attendance:  10,850       

          With their seven runs, this was an offensive explosion for the Rays, who managed only 11 runs against the Astros in four games.  Brandon Lowe got his first two hits of the year, including a home run to the opposite field with one on in the fourth, and Kevin Kiermaier blasted a monster home run to the back row in right center with two on in the sixth.  Austin Meadows just missed another in the bottom of the eighth when the ball bounced high off the wall in deep right field.

            On the pitching end Ryne Stanek opened with a scoreless first, striking out the side.   He was followed by Ryan Yarbrough who went four and a third for the win, and then for the last four innings, Kevin Cash used four more pitchers to wrap it up.  When everything falls so neatly into place, it's almost boring. 

But that's okay.  We’ve become so used to the nail-biters the Rays usually play that this one was a ho-hum affair, start to finish.

            One at-bat, however, got my attention:  José Alvarado vs. Nolan Arenado in the top of the eighth.  Alvarado is six feet, 245 pounds, and throws hundred-mile-an-hour strikes.  Arenado is one of the top two or three players in the game right now, signing a contract extension during spring training that will pay him $32.5 million over the next eight years.  (All he did last year was hit .297, slam 38 homers, drive in 110 runs, and score 104 more.)  But the thing is, he doesn’t look like much when he gets to the plate, sort of nervous with fidgety feet, like Johnny Damon used to have when he played for the Rays in 2011.  Arenado already had two hits when he came up in the eighth against Alvarado.  They fought well until the count reached 3-2—and then Alvarado put a fast ball out over the plate and Arenado took it into center field for a single.  Somehow he managed to get the job done.  Damn good work.  A pleasure to watch.    

            Joey Wendle’s left hamstring is serious enough for him to be put on the IL, which could spell trouble—except for the Ray’s well-established and already-proven versatility.  They called up Christian Arroyo from Triple A, the centerpiece of their trade a year ago of Evan Longoria to the Giants.  He hasn’t had a chance to prove himself at the major league level, but at 23, he could show a huge upside—and this could be his big opportunity.  It looks like he may  find playing time in Kevin Cash’s rotating infield.      

            On the dark side, the attendance was the worst yet this year, at 10,850.  We’re going to have to do better if we’re going to keep this team in the area.  Damn Portland.

March 31. Game 4: Yonny: Opener, Bulker, Starter

Rays 3, Astros 1
Record:  3-1

Attendance:   18,473       

            
          Yonny Chirinos is supposed to be a “bulker” this season, maybe an occasional “opener,” but today Manager Kevin Cash called on him to be an old-fashioned “starter.”  All Chirinos managed to do today was pitch seven innings of two-hit ball, giving up one run and striking out six.  The bullpen supplied four more end-of-game “finishers” with the save going to the last of them, Diego Castillo, another of the seemingly endless stream of youngsters on this team.  (There are six 25-year-olds like Castillo; four others under 25; and then eleven more clustered between 26 and 28.)  Mike Zunino threw out another would-be base stealer (three out of four on the young year for him, with Michael Perez picking up another), making the Rays a team other teams will think twice about  running on.  Austin Meadows launched his second homer of the year, a towering fly ball that carried clear over the center field wall, which, with an RBI single in the first, gives him 4 on the year.  He may take our minds off Jake Bauers.  What a start to the year, three of four from the Astros.

·          

            Astro’s manager A. J. Hinch:  “We will walk out of here losing three of four, so needless to say, we’re ready to get out of here.”  Remembering his team has lost seven of its last eleven games against the Rays, he added, “There’s a reason they won 90 games [last year].  They’re not a secret.”

            Joey Wendle tweaked a hamstring in the sixth and was pulled for a pinch hitter at his next scheduled at-bat.  The official line was that it didn’t appear to be serious.

            Matt Duffy, on the injured list for a mild hamstring problem, has now revealed a back injury that will keep him out more than the minimum ten-day period, maybe until mid-May.  He’s an interesting case, a superior defensive player and an accomplished singles hitter who batted .294 last year, he has almost no long ball potential, which you like to see in a third baseman.  Maybe worse, Duffy is painfully thin and looks fragile and on the verge of an extended recovery stint, like 2017, a season he lost completely due to foot surgery.  He's a good man to have--when you have him.

The Rockies are coming to town tomorrow.  Opener Ryne Stanek vs. Chad Bettis.

Saturday, March 30. Game 3: "We're just not built that way."

Rays 3, Astros 1

Record:  2-1

Attendance:  16,010 (54,094)

            

          Versatility won the day.  In the post game interview, Manager Kevin Cash said that some teams are able to send the same eight men out there every night.  “We’re just not built that way.”  And so we have depth and versatility—and tonight it worked.  Meadows was in left, Pham was the DH, Wendle was at short, Lowe was at second, Ji-Man was at first (for the third consecutive game), and Michael Perez was behind the plate.  The key to the W tonight was Perez, who had two key hits, a single and a double and an RBI—and he threw out José Altuve trying to steal second. So we worry about the drawbacks of versatility on one day, and the next day we rejoice in it.  Rays baseball. 

            The most impressive player for the Rays tonight was starter Taylor Glasnow, the pitcher who came over from the Pirates last year in the Chris Archer trade.  He pitched five strong innings, giving up an early home run to Alex Bregman who managed to put one over the waist-high fence in left, 315 feet away from home plate.  Glasnow was 0-5 in spring training with a 10.38 ERA, and suddenly he gets the W against one of the toughest hitting lineups in the major leagues.  He said he’d been experimenting all spring with a slight pause in his delivery, keeping at it all spring, but with the pathetic numbers he put up, he went back to his old delivery for his first start of the new year.  And suddenly he was in the victory circle once again.

            Wrapping this one up, for his second save in as many days, was José Alvarado, the Rays’ unannointed closer.  If he saves 40 games this year, he’ll become the savior of the season.  Nice.