The opening day box...
It was a struggle on offense but thanks to
Joe Marlette's dominant outing the Rays didn't need to score much. In fact they didn't even get a hit until the 5th when
Cristian Hernandez singled before breaking through in the 6th on
Kelly Crumpton's RBI single and then getting the big hit, a 2-out 2-run single from
Orlando Tosado.
Josh Scanlon gave us 2031 flashbacks when he allowed a homer to the first batter he faced as a Ray in the 9th but set down the Sox from there for the save.
Game #2 was very similar to Game #1 as runs were at a premium yet the Rays still prevailed 2-1.
Kevin DiCostanzo was excellent at 7 5 1 0 0 4, allowing a mere unearned run in the first after
William Contreras threw wildly on a stolen base attempt. They still trailed until the 7th when after several earlier opportunities were wasted they got the equalizer on a bases-loaded HBP to
Wander Franco, and won it in the 8th when with two out and nobody on
Cristian Hernandez reached on a two-base error and scored on
Dong-hwan Kim's single.
Frankely Guzman earned a win in his first Rays appearance with a scoreless 8th and
Josh Scanlon saved again, this time more convincingly by striking out the side.
The Rays completed the sweep by bringing out the lumber in an 11-2 rout of Chicago.
Dong-hwan Kim, who won yesterday's game late, won today's game early by blasting a grand slam in the 2nd to erase an early 2-0 White Sox lead, the team's first homer of the new season. Kim later homered again to cap a 5-RBI day while
Kelly Crumpton and
Cristian Hernandez each hit 2-run dingers.
William Contreras had 3 hits and scored 3 times. The winner was
Wes Mendes, who had some early struggles but finished 5 5 2 2 3 5.
Team record: 3-0. Next up: Baltimore comes to the Trop for 4 games.