Full box time for Opening Day:
Rays lost a tough one on Opening Day to Boston and their star young lefty Sean Nelson 5-4. The season did not get off to an auspicious start when reigning MVP Jaiden Hardaway dropped a popup from the leadoff hitter in the game, and that helped Boston take a 3-0 first-inning lead although the Steve Burns 3-run homer off reigning Cy Young winner Andy Aparicio was the bigger culprit. AA also coughed up a couple of more runs including a Gleyber Torres homer to put the Rays in a hole. Nelson was tough on them, allowing only a Ricky Widmar homer through 7 innings before he walked Hardaway and hit Dayle Jenkins to lead off the 8th. Boston closer Bobby Carman then walked Victor de Jesus to load the bases with nobody out, but Vlad Guerrero Jr grounded into a double play to take the steam out of the rally. A run did score on the play and Bo Angeac drilled an RBI double, but Danny Ayala struck out to end the threat. After Omar Rodriguez homered to lead off the 9th to cut it to 5-4, Hardaway singled with one out but couldn't advance. When we had Nate Clark and Rodolfo Rivas we had an all-righty lineup including switch-hitters most of the time so we weren't suspectible to lefties. But Ayala does have a platoon split, and with the only righties on the bench being backup catcher Will Quintana and light-hitting Melvin Gutierrez, he and/or Jon Jimenez are going to have to play against them. Kevin Kerstetter was a bright spot with 3 scoreless innings of relief featuring 6 whiffs.
Game 2: Nate Schultz, who finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting to Andy Aparicio last year, decided to go Aparicio one better than yesterday and put the Rays in a 6-0 hole before the bats came to life and came back all the way to edge Boston 10-9. I know, I said I turned down the offense this year. It was a costly win and I'll get to that in a minute. Almost immediately after Boston made it 6-0 (including a homer from Jose Centeno, taking revenge on a team he only played for in Spring Training), Danny Ayala went to work, homering off Mario Candelaria to lead off the 2nd and homering again with a man on in the 3rd and it was 6-4. Then in the 4th the comeback was complete when Victor de Jesus singled in a run and with the bases loaded Vlad Guerrero Jr cleared them all with a grand slam to make it 9-6. But Schultz, who had settled down after giving up 6 in the first 2, struggled again in the 5th, allowing a run to make it 9-7. Danny Medina got through the 5th and pitched the 6th before Willie Bertone made his Rays debut in the 7th. Hope you got a good look at him because after whiffing the first two batters he gave up a single then a 2-run homer to Tyler Gibson to tie the game. And after he got the final out, he left the game with what turned out to be a torn UCL, so Tommy John Surgery it is and we'll see you in 2035. Mike Wherry pitched a scoreless 8th and then in the bottom of the inning the Rays rallied and put men on 2nd and 3rd. They had trouble getting the lead man home until Ricky Vanasco uncorked a wild pitch and it was 10-9. Kikuo Kawase came on for the 9th and looked like the 2033 first-half Kawase by striking out the side including tough lefty hitter Eric Knatz so Wherry got the win and Kawase the save. Losing Bertone is a tough blow as he was going to be the bridge 7th-inning righty to get it to Siqueiros and Kawase. Medina may get moved into that role now and Wherry should take on increased responsibility beyond going against lefties.
MLB News: The first of the recently-departed Rays to make an impact turned out to be Dane Ayers, who hit a walk-off homer in the 10th to give Toronto a win over the Yankees. That's not counting Jordan Diaz blowing a save and vulturing a win on Opening Day for Houston.
April 1: Place P Willie Bertone on the 60-day IL with a torn UCL, recalled P Edgar Rios from AAA Durham.
I considered Chris Hicks, but he's a somewhat known quantity so I want to see what we have in Rios, acquired on waivers last year from San Diego and sent to Durham. The 27-year-old has 65 stuff, 60 movement and 55 control and was excellent with the Bulls last year with a line of 35.2 15 5 5 12 47 good for a 1.26 ERA with 5 wins and 3 saves. He also threw 3 hitless innings in spring training with 1 walk and 3 whiffs. It would be nice to be able to use him like I intended to use Bertone but let's see how he fares in some lower-leverage situations first.
Game 3: Another Rays starting pitcher got his season off to a rough start but Leo Ortega limited the early damage, settled down, and the Rays took a 5-2 win over Boston to make it two out of three to start 2034. By the third inning Ortega had allowed 6 hits, and 2 runs were already in with men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out but he bore down and got a couple of strikeouts to end the inning and gave up nothing after that to finish 6 6 2 2 1 3 and grab the win. Mike Wherry continues to look more like the guy we thought we were getting than the guy we got lost year with a 1-2-3 2K 7th, Tim Siqueiros did his thing in the 8th and Kikuo Kawase retired the Sox in order in the 9th with a pair of whiffs for save #2. The offense came from two consecutive batters in the 2nd: Ricky Widmar laced a 2-run double and Luis Corpus followed him by depositing one into the LF seats for HR #1 to put the Rays up 4-1 early. Danny Ayala's sac fly brought home an insurance run in the 8th.
Game 4: Just when it looked like the Rays would pull out another come-from-behind win, Tim Siqueiros couldn't close the deal in the 9th and the Rays took a tough 6-4 loss. Victor de Jesus's RBI double in the bottom of the 8th tied it at 3, and then Dayle Jenkins delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to score de Jesus and the Rays looked golden with a 4-3 edge going into the 9th. Kikuo Kawase, having thrown about 45 pitches the last two days, was unavailable so it fell to Siqueiros to close it out. He struck out the first man, but gave up a double and a single to allow Boston to tie it, put another man on with 2 out, and Bob Sirna was brought in to face Rafael Devers but Boston countered with pinch-hitter Dominic Keegan, who hit a 2-run double down the LF line to make it 6-4 Sox and the Rays went meekly in the bottom of the 9th. Jon Soranno started and he suffered from the affliction of the previous three Rays starters, giving up early runs. Boston got single runs in each of the first 3 innings before Soranno was locked in, and he finished 7 4 3 3 2 5. Billy Hoyte made his Rays debut in impressive fashion, getting Boston 1-2-3 in the 8th and was in line for the win before it was blown. After a Bo Angeac triple in the 5th, Jon Jimenez got his first MLB RBI on a groundout, and Alex Buitrago in his first action of the year homered to get the Rays within 3-2 later in the inning.
Team record: 2-2. Next up: An off-day then 2 games at Yankee Stadium.