The Rays got off to the start they and their fans expected, sweeping the 2-game mini-series from Boston to open the new season. Here's the Opening Day box:
Everything went to plan as ace
Joe Marlette struck out 11 and new acquisition
Danny Rivera belted a grand slam in the 3rd to break open a 1-0 game as they cruised to victory. The only down note was that new mega-acquisition
Jeremy Begley was 0-5 in his Rays debut. He'll be fine.
And it only took one day for Begley to get fine as he slammed a 2-run homer in the first inning of the second game to propel the Rays to a 7-3 win over Boston. Meanwhile welcome back
Tony Fisher as his RBI double got things going in a 4-run 3rd that also saw lefty-killer
Agustin Lopez deliver a 2-run triple. This was more run support than
Danny Morales was accustomed to last season and he picked up the win going 6 5 3 3 1 8, his only blemish a 3-run homer allowed in his final inning of work. The new/old-look bullpen got the job done as well with
Stan LeVea, Branden Gammage and
Tony Alicea each pitching a scoreless inning to close it out.
Team record: 2-0. Next up: Another quickie 2-gamer at home against Baltimore, which also started the season 2-0.
Transaction: Also another familiar face is back in the Rays bullpen as we claimed lefty
Jamie Arnold off waivers from the Yankees, who brought him back as a free agent for a modest $1.1M this winter but couldn't find room on the Opening Day roster for him. It was Arnold whom we took from New York the winter before in the Rule 5 Draft so he's been passed back and forth. To make room we optioned
Jordan Rodriguez to Durham.