Here's the opening day roster, without any real surprises like last year when Ronaldo surprisingly grabbed the 2nd catcher spot and didn't let go of it:
C: K.Ruiz, R.Hernandez
1B: Bohm
2B: Brujan
SS: Wander
3B: Devers
IF: Bannon
OF: Meadows, Marsh, Kepler, Yusniel Diaz, Kirilloff
DH: Beer
SP: Syndergaard, Glasnow, Paddack, Fried, Ryan
RP: W.Smith, Alvarado, N.Anderson, Gallegos, Barlow, Ashby, D.Jimenez, McClanahan
Neither Kirilloff nor Beer tore it up in spring training; that would be Torkelson instead. But Tork isn't on the 40-man and hasn't played above AA so he'll start at Durham for now. Not really sure how much Kirilloff is going to play, although against certain righties Beer could spell Bohm at 1B and Kirilloff can DH. Also Kepler's on a short leash.
Let the games begin!
Game 1: (I'm not going to post the recap part of the box score for every game, but Opening Day is always special)
Bohms away! Getting a shot at the 1B job, Alec Bohm went deep twice and drove in 5 to pace a 10-4 opening day win. The pitching matchup was a classic that played out many times in the NL East, with Max Scherzer against Noah Syndergaard. But a duel it wasn't as the Rays didn't waste time getting to Scherzer with Wander taking him deep in the 1st for the first of his 2 HRs and then Bohm in the 2nd to make it 2-0. And then came the fourth as the Rays put up 7, with Bohm blasting a 3-run shot that chased Scherzer and Vidal Brujan adding a 3-run homer of his own off Framber Valdez to make it 9-0 and effectively end the game. Thor, meanwhile, was rolling along (he got the side in order in the first on 5 pitches) and was at 5 3 0 0 0 7 before he ran into some trouble in the 6th, giving up a Yordan Alvarez triple and then a George Springer HR to make it 10-3. But he stuck around for the seventh and got a pair of Ks, going 7 7 3 3 1 10 in his Rays debut. Speaking of Rays debuts, Seth Beer was on base three times with a HBP, a walk, and his first major league hit, an improbable infield single. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit except Austin Meadows, who had a rough 0-3 with all his outs being strikeouts, although he did draw a walk. Rafael Devers was 1-5 in his Rays debut as his 4th inning double got the 7-run rally started. Dany Jimenez and Aaron Ashby didn't look particularly sharp in their two innings of relief, with Jimenez giving up 3 runs and a hit and Ashby allowing 2 hits.
Elsewhere around the AL East, the Yankees beat Baltimore 3-1 behind a dominating performance from Gerrit Cole (8 2 1 1 0 10) and a HR from Aaron Hicks. With Chapman gone, it looks like David Bednar is their closer as he picked up the save. The Jays fell 2-1 to Detroit; Nate Pearson threw 6 2/3 shutout innings but Simeon Woods Richardson gave up a couple runs in the 8th while Matt Manning was an impressive 7.2 6 1 1 1 8 for the Tigers. Boston lost 6-4 at Seattle, so it's the Rays and Yanks both off to 1-0 starts.
Blake Snell won his Mets debut, going 6.1 3 3 3 2 5, and Kiermaier was 1-4 with an RBI. Francisco Lindor was 5-5 with a HR and 2 RBI in his Phillies debut as they beat Atlanta 4-3. Also looking through the various teams' opening day rosters, I see that Tommy Romero is listed as the Rockies' #4 starter, so I guess he's not getting returned unless things go poorly.
Game 2: It was Tyler Glasnow vs Lance McCullers Jr but neither of them fared very well. But Shane McClanahan most definitely did as the Rays pulled out a 6-4 win to go 2-0 on the young season. Glasnow was wild and (somewhat hittable) over his 3.2 innings, walking 5 and striking out 7. He gave up a 2-run HR to George Springer and a solo shot to Yasmani Grandal in the 2nd after the Rays had grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first on a Meadows sac fly and a Keibert single after Devers had doubled. Then after giving up another run in the 3rd after the Rays had jumped back ahead 4-3 on a Brujan RBI single, stolen base and Wander RBI single, Glasnow got into more trouble in the 4th after walking Jesus Sanchez and then hitting Yordan Alvarez with lefty Kyle Tucker due up. Enter McClanahan, who got Tucker to fly out and then did Shane McClanahan things, going 3 1 0 0 0 6 over the middle innings. This was long enough to have Brandon Marsh go deep in the 6th to give the Rays a 5-4 lead, and then after McClanahan gave up a 2-out single to Tucker in the 7th, Scott Barlow came on in his Rays debut and although he allowed a Correa single, he struck out Springer to end the threat. Then Alec Bohm hit his third homer in two days to give the Rays an insurance run in the bottom of the 7th. Alvarado came on in the 8th and got into immediate trouble by walking Grandal and giving up a single to JD Martinez but he struck out Sanchez and got Jose Altuve to hit into a double play. Will Smith then came on and had a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Tucker to end the game. McClanahan deservedly got the win while Brujan and Wander each had 3 hits and an RBI while Seth Beer was 2-3 with a walk, now hitting .600 with a .750 OBP.
Game 3: Well it finally happened: Chris Paddack lost a game as a Tampa Bay Ray. He wasn't terrible by any means as the Rays allowed 4 runs just as they did in both Games 1 and 2. The difference this time was Forrest Whitley, who settled down after a Wander HR (his 3rd already) in the 1st inning to go 7.2 4 1 1 3 6. Paddack shut the Astros down through 3, including striking out the side in the 3rd, but gave up a Yordan Alvarez HR in the 4th to tie it, and then he gave up a couple more longballs in the 5th, George Springer's 3rd and a 2-run shot by Jose Altuve and we had our 4-1 final score. The Rays only managed 5 hits on the night, with Max Kepler getting 2 of them and doubles by Bohm and Keibert being the others. Bohm was thrown out at the plate in the 2nd trying to score on a Kepler single and that was the closest they came to scoring the rest of the game. The Yankees beat Baltimore again so they're 2-0 and a half game up. Paddack was great outside the HRs, going 7 5 4 4 0 6, Aaron Ashby and Gio Gallegos combined for 2 scoreless innings of relief.
Game 4: Man, we'll be glad to see the last of George Springer for a while. The Houston CF was 3-4 with his 4th HR in 4 games and 5 RBI. But his heroics weren't enough for the Astros today as the Rays took a much-closer-than-it-should-have-been 8-7 win to take 3 of the first 4 against a very tough opponent, the one OOTP projects to win 100 games to the Rays' 97 as the two top teams in the AL. Max Fried got the nod and he was shaky early, allowing 2 runs and 6 hits through 3 innings but he settled down from there, and left with a 6.1 8 2 2 3 3 line which was good enough for his first win of the season. That's because Rafael Devers drove in Brujan who had stolen second to tie it at 1 in the first, and then after Seth Beer was hit by another pitch and Alex Kirilloff walked in his MLB debut (he was 0-3 on the day), Ronaldo Hernandez launched a 3-run blast to deep LCF, continuing his 2022 trend of maximizing his occasional starts. Marsh then walked, stole second, and ended up scoring on a Devers fielder's choice to make it 5-1. Brujan later tripled in Hernandez in the 6th and Devers had a 2-run double in the eighth to make it 8-3 capping his 4-5 day with 4 RBI. So with it 8-3 in the 9th, Dany Jimenez got the call and gave up 3 hits and committed an error to make it 8-4, and then with two on and the tying run on deck Will Smith came on for the save and after getting out #2 served up a 3-run shot to Springer to make it 8-7. Smith then whiffed Carlos Correa to end the game and get a shaky save #2. Nick Anderson made his season debut when Fried put a couple on in the 7th and got a pop up and whiff to end that inning, so far so good then with him. Scott Barlow gave up a run in the 8th in his lone inning as the new-look bullpen has been a bit rocky to start the season but the Astros are a tough team to pitch against. Austin Meadows still can't buy a hit, now 0-12 in the first 4 games but as you can tell by only averaging 3 ABs per game he's been drawing some walks at least. The Rays move into first after the Yankees lost a wild 12-10 game to Baltimore and the Blue Jays hit 9 (!) HRs today to get their first win of the year. Elsewhere Tommy Romero gave up 5 runs (3 earned) and 6 hits in 3 innings to the light-hitting Marlins in his Rockies debut so there's still hope of a return.
Team record: 3-1.