Opening Day box:
It was a tough opening day for the Rays as the biggest concern coming into the season, the bullpen, turned out to be the problem today.
Joe Marlette was outstanding in his season debut, dinged for a 2-run homer and nothing else, but
Ajani Riddick and
Ruben Abeyta conspired to allow 2 runs to the Yankees in the 8th to lose it. There were a couple of bright spots aside from Marlette:
Danny Charlton had 3 hits and
Tony Fisher had an impressive Rays debut with a double and an RBI single.
The Rays were two outs away from the bleakest of starts to a season, staring a 2-0 loss in the face to start 0-2, managing only two hits, and worse yet losing star 3B
Danny Arroyave for five weeks with an abdominal strain. But while they couldn't magically heal Arroyave, they did rally in the 9th to take a thrilling 3-2 win over the Yankees for their first win of 2037. New boy
Tony Fisher got the crowd into a frenzy with a 2-run homer with one out to tie it, and two batters later
Danny Charlton went deep to RCF to walk it off. As a result
Danny Morales wasn't saddled with a loss after an excellent start (6 4 2 1 2 9) and another newcomer
Jon Coggin went 2 strong innings in relief to pick up his first Rays win.
Team record: 1-1. Next up: Toronto comes to town for 2 games.