[Art Deco]

Game 1: Opening Day at the Trop was quite the affair, with a pre-game ceremony in which the Rays received their World Series rings and a fired-up crowd greeted the New York Yankees. The pitching matchup was first-rate, with defending AL Cy Young winner Tyler Glasnow versus the guy many thought should have won the award, Gerrit Cole. And the matchup lived up to its billing through the first half of the game as we went scoreless until the bottom of the 5th when the Rays pushed across a couple of runs. Seth Beer led off with a walk, Nick Schnell singled, and a Brandon Marsh fly ball sent Beer to 3rd. Vidal Brujan hit into a fielder's choice to score Beer, and then he stole second and scored on a Wander Franco single. Meanwhile Glasnow was dealing but finally ran into trouble in the 7th when a 2-out double from Yankee rookie 3B Skyler Messinger brought home a run. Glasnow then walked Mike Tauchman leaving with an excellent 6.2 4 1 1 1 7 line, and Nick Anderson got the final out to keep it 2-1. The Rays then added 2 more in the bottom of the 7th, chasing Cole, on doubles from Schnell (his 3rd hit of the game) and Brujan, and a Rafael Devers sac fly. Anderson got Luke Voit to start the 8th, and although Jose Alvarado gave up a hit and a walk, he whiffed Giancarlo Stanton who represented the tying run at the plate. Will Smith got a pair of Ks to start the 9th and after Brujan booted what would have been the final out, Smith got a popup to end the game and grab save #1 in the 4-1 win. In addition to Schnell, Wander had 3 hits as well as they outhit the Yankees 10-5.

The Rays game was one of only 3 on opening day as I'm using the 2016 schedule in order to get the rotating interleague matchups right as this year they'll play the NL Central in addition to the "rivalry" games with the Miami Marl...er, Roughnecks. They're off on the 8th while everyone else opened up. Boston lost to Pittsburgh 6-4 and Trevor Larnach had a HR for the Pirates (an insurance run in the 9th), Tigers OF phenom Riley Greene had a HR and 7 RBI in his MLB debut in a 13-5 win over the White Sox that also saw Alex Kirilloff go 0-3.

Game 2: Matt Manning made his Rays debut and he was great...until he got hurt. Manning went 5.2 5 1 1 1 5 but had to leave in the 6th with elbow tendinitis and will be out 4 weeks. It put a damper on what was an otherwise successful second game for the Rays as they drubbed the Yankees 8-3. Wander Franco hit a pair of HRs and drove in 3 runs in his first 2 at-bats, Rafael Devers had a 2-run triple and Brandon Marsh had an RBI double. Jasseel De La Cruz relieved Manning and got out of the 6th but gave up a couple of runs in the 7th that got the Yankees within 4-3, with the second run coming in when Jose Alvarado gave up an RBI single to another of the Yankee rookies, LF Kyle Isbel. Nick Anderson got though the 8th with 2 strikeouts, and then the Rays broke it open with 4 in the 8th allowing Mitch Keller to make his Rays debut and throw a scoreless inning. With early season off days, we won't need a fifth starter too much and of course Daniel Lynch and Asa Lacy are candidates already on the active roster.

Yusniel Diaz was 3-4 with a HR and 3 RBI for Milwaukee today and Clarke Schmidt worked 2 innings in middle relief for the Brewers, while Noah Syndergaard went 7 scoreless to beat the Cubs 1-0 in the latest on the Rays diaspora.

April 9: Placed P Matt Manning on the 15-day IL with elbow tendinitis, purchased the contract of P Dany Jimenez from AAA Durham, assigned P Tanner Dodson to AAA Durham.

Jimenez and Dodson had to clear waivers to come back, and they did, and Jimenez gets the call back up.

Game 3: The Rays got more of a fight from the Yankees today, but it still wasn't enough as they swept the opening series with a 9-7 win. Nick Schnell continued his torrid start to the season with 3 more hits, including a 2-RBI single in the 6th that proved to be the margin of victory. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead after 2 innings and it looked like it would be another rout, but starter Max Fried allowed the first 3 hitters of the 3rd inning to reach and Gleyber Torres hit a grand slam to center to tie the game, and the Yankees added two more off him in the fourth including another Torres HR to go up 6-4. But the Rays struck back for 3 in the bottom of the inning, keyed by a 2-run Brandon Marsh double, his second of the game, before adding the two on the Schnell single in the 6th. Fried settled down after his rough first 4 innings to get the Yankees in order in the 5th and 6th, and Mitch Keller pitched a scoreless 7th before putting the leadoff man on in the eighth. With a bunch of lefties coming up, Aaron Ashby got the call and after striking out the first one, he started giving up hits and walks allowing Keller's runner to score but was helped by Austin Meadows gunning down a runner at 3rd. Nick Anderson had to come in to face Skyler Messinger with two out and got him on a groundball on the first pitch. Will Smith took over in the 9th and got a pair of strikeouts in a perfect inning for save #2, while Fried picked up the win while going 6 9 6 6 1 6. Vidal Brujan was 3-5 with a pair of ribbies, and Wander Franco ended the 3-game series 7-11 with 2 HR and 6 RBI after 2 more hits and 2 more RBI today. Also Spencer Torkelson made his MLB debut at DH, and after rolling into a double play in his first at-bat, singled to left in his second and also walked as part of a 1-3 day.

Team record: 3-0.