Game 1: History was made as a new decade dawned for Tampa Bay Rays baseball with the team now playing in the open-air, natural-grass Publix Park in downtown Tampa. And before a sellout crowd, the Rays delivered a 3-2 win in a game that didn't see Publix Park as the hitters' paradise it was expected to be. Instead it was the domain of Christian Little, who served notice he'll be taking back the Cy Young as long as he stays healthy as he went 6 2 1 1 0 9. Evan Godwin took over for him in the 7th and ran into some trouble, giving up a run, but Daniel Morfin in his Rays debut got a grounder to first to end the inning and keep the lead at 3-2. Jose Alvarado came on for the 8th and did this, the first time it's happened for the Rays in now the 11th season of this save:
Yes, he struck out the side in the 8th on 9 pitches. He stayed on to get the first out of the 9th and then Jasseel De La Cruz got the final two for the save. Offensively it was a slow start to things with only Ricky Widmar looking in midseason form as he rapped out 3 hits. Jhon Diaz and Connor Kirkley had RBI singles in the 2nd to give them a quick 2-0 lead, and Joe Barker had an RBI groundout in the 3rd but after that the offense could only manage a handful of hits. Still, on a day Little was pitching it was enough. Here's the box score to commemorate the first game in Publix Park:
Game 2: The Rays finally flexed their muscles in their new playground as they rode a pair of homers to a 7-3 win over Toronto. Let the record show Joe Barker's 1st inning 2-run homer off Carmen Mlodzinski was the first-ever longball hit at Publix Park, and it gave the Rays an early 2-1 lead. The Rays made it 3-1 on a Connor Kirkley pop-up on the infield that fell for a single after some miscommunication among Jays fielders, and Jasson Dominguez went yard for the 2nd homer in Publix Park history to make it 4-1 in the 4th. This was all more than enough offense for Alec Sachais, who nearly duplicated Christian Little's dominant opening day performance with a 6 3 2 1 1 9 line of his own. Jordan Diaz and Mike Mooney had scoreless innings, and David Saldana made his MLB debut in the 9th. It was a bit of a rude greeting for him as Skyler Messinger took him deep for the first opponent homer in Publix Park but he got the next three batters out to finish the game. Dayle Jenkins and Gabriel Moreno added RBI singles for the Rays' cause. Elsewhere Shane McClanahan continues to help out the Rays as in his Houston debut he went 7.1 5 0 0 1 12 to beat the Yankees 3-0.
Game 3: The Rays will not be going 162-0 this year as Jon Hayes had a brutal debut for the Rays and the Jays belted four homers to beat the Rays 6-3. Hayes was not sharp at all, uncharacteristically wild and running deep counts, and 3 homers off him didn't help either as he went 3.1 6 5 4 5 4. The same-handed Riley Greene took him deep twice as well as the same-handed Matt Olson (Olson later homered off Andy Aparicio as well). Aparicio was his usual impressive self in long relief, going 3.2 1 1 1 0 7, and David Saldana was much stronger today than yesterday, whiffing 5 in 2 1-hit innings, but all that did was keep it close. Of course it didn't help that after the first 3 Rays batters of the game had hits to produce 2 runs (both on a Nate Clark double), they only managed one hit the entire rest of the game on Jasson Dominguez's 2nd HR in the 6th as Kenta Maeda recovered from his rough 1st inning. To add insult to injury, Mack Anglin - the guy Hayes replaced in the rotation - went 6 5 1 1 3 5 and won his Phillies debut (which also featured a 2-run HR from Judson Fabian).
Game 4: Publix Park lived up to its advance billing as a hitter's park today as the Rays and Jays combined for 7 homers in a wild, wild game that saw Toronto pull off the most miraculous of comebacks yet still fall short as Isaac DeLeon's 2nd HR of the day in bottom of the 9th gave the Rays a 9-8 walk-off win. I mentioned the most miraculous of comebacks because the Rays led 8-5 going into the 9th and Jasseel De La Cruz came in. JDLC struck out the first two Jays then gave up a single to Skyler Messinger, his fourth hit of the day including a 2-run HR in the 1st off Jack Leiter. JDLC then gave up a homer to Matt Olson to make it 8-7 and the next batter Nestor Ramirez went deep as well as a stunned sellout crowd watched in horror. But this set the stage for DeLeon to drive a Jonathan Pence pitch over the LCF wall to give the Rays the win after all. The Jays jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first against Leiter after Bobby Witt Jr's two-out error opened the door. But the Rays came back on a 2-run Jhon Diaz HR and a 3-run 3rd inning which feature DeAndre Hodges' first MLB hit, a double, and a 2-run single from Joe Barker and an RBI single from DeLeon, who later hit his first homer in the 6th to make it 6-4 Rays. Dane Ayers delivered a 2-run single in the 7th to make it 8-4 before Luis Garcia homered off Mike Mooney to cut it to 8-5 before the real drama began. JDLC picked up the most undeserved of wins, one that should have gone to Leiter despite a mixed bag line of 5.2 8 4 2 2 5.
Team record: 3-1. Next up: 3 more at home against Texas.