It was a great Opening Day:
Yuji Morioka celebrated his full-time to SS replacing Dave Frick by hitting two homers and the Rays scored early and often in beating Toronto 8-3 in the 2049 lid-lifter. A couple of new faces came through as well with rookie Jon Morales and new acquisition Juan Viatorio each going 2-4 in their debuts. While Greg Bookhart wasn't his sharpest, he was good enough for the win and Angel Roig pitched a couple of scoreless innings against his former teammates.
Game 2: The offense came through again, scoring 7 times in their final 3 at-bats to lift the Rays to a 9-4 win over Toronto. Chris Parham, who drove in 3 in total, had a 2-run double in the 6th to tie it, and Tomas Laboy drilled a 3-run homer (#1) in the 7th to win it. Juan Viatorio was 3-5 with a double and RBI as well. Dave Rose pitched well but his own fielding error cost him in the 6th when Toronto scored 3 unearned to take a 4-2 lead and chased him from the game. He finished 5.2 8 4 1 0 7 and the win in relief went to Willie Navarro, who went 1 1/3 scoreless in his Rays debut.
Game 3: No comeback needed today as the Rays went to 3-0 behind a strong Chad Gardner outing and six early runs in a 10-1 blasting of the Blue Jays. Gardner demonstrated why he's worth the big 2-year extension he got by going a solid 7 6 1 1 0 5 for the win. They took advantage of the wildness of Toronto starter Jim Chamberlain (who walked 6 in all) to score 3 times in the 2nd and then in the 4th reigning AL MVP Luis Barela blasted his first homer of the year, a 3-run shot. Juan Davila later added his 2nd homer and Yuji Morioka drove in a pair to give him 6 in the season's first three games.
Game 4: A disastrous 4th inning which saw Toronto score 8 times led to the Rays tasting defeat for the first time in 2049 despite a furious comeback as they fell 10-9 to Toronto. Bob Riley got through the first 3 innings with only one run allowed but just couldn't get anyone out in the 4th as a parade of Jays got hit after hit, and then Tony Pasillas was just as bad, giving up two more runs of his own and it was 9-2 Toronto. Riley took the loss with a brutal 3.1 9 7 7 1 4 outing against his former club. But big deficits don't faze the Rays, especially at Publix Park, and they fought back thanks to some unlikely heroes. Rookie catcher Alvaro Alejandre made his MLB debut and homered in his first at-bat, something I'm pretty sure hasn't happened with a Ray in all the years of this save. He also added a 2-run double to give him a 2-3, 3-RBI day. Ismael Morales made his Rays debut and was 2-4 with a 2-run triple, and rookie Jon Morales hit his first MLB homer with a 2-run shot in the 6th. They made it 10-9 in the 7th but couldn't push across the equalizer in the final two innings. Angel Roig was impressive again keeping Toronto at bay with 3 1/3 hitless innings with 5 strikeouts.
Team record: 3-1. Next up: The White Sox come to town for 3 games.