[Art Deco]

Game 1: Opening Day at the Trop, and the Rays got off to a good start with a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays. Matt Manning got the OD honor and shut Toronto out through 5, but his late-season bugaboo last year of walks came back to bite him as he put a pair on with free passes and Ryan Noda drilled a 3-run HR. The Rays were already up 4-0 at that point, though, so Manning picked up the win going 6 6 3 3 3 5. And for the 6th year running our 7th and 8th inning standbys Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson pitched perfect innings, with Anderson whiffing Vlad Jr. as part of his outing. With a couple of lefties due in the 9th I went to Evan Godwin instead of Jasseel De La Cruz, and Godwin got it done. Although he allowed a leadoff single, he whiffed Noda and got Alejandro Kirk to ground into a game-ending double play. The offense came quick and early, with Wander Franco and Keibert Ruiz hitting 1st inning doubles off Mick Abel to get a run in the 1st, and then in the 2nd Nick Gonzales doubled, Brandon Marsh walked, they pulled off a double steal and then Wander doubled again, scoring them both. And in the 5th in his Rays debut, Judson Fabian hit a mammoth blast of 472 ft to LCF to make it 4-0. Unfortunately the offense dried up after that, but it was enough for the win.

Game 2: Another nail-biter at the Trop went the Rays' way as they prevailed 5-4 in 12 innings over Toronto. Tyler Glasnow got the start and he was utterly dominant, going 7 3 2 2 2 13 (on only 97 pitches!) with the only damage against him a 2-run Vlad Jr. HR in the 4th. He left with a 3-2 lead but things got dicey in the 8th. Evan Godwin came in and allowed a hit, but got 2 out bringing Vlad to the plate again. Nick Anderson came in and Guerrero greeted him with another 2-run HR to LF and the Jays were ahead 4-3. Nate Pearson came on in the bottom of the 9th to try and close it out for Toronto but Judson Fabian did it again, greeting Pearson with another massive blast to LCF similar to yesterday's. And the Rays nearly won it later in the inning but Alec Bohm was thrown out at the plate with one out, a mistake on my part to give him the green light. And on to extras we went and the Rays finally broke through in the 12th when Brandon Marsh led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Vidal Brujan's single to walk it off. Earlier in the game, Brujan led off the 1st with a dinger and Wander Franco followed with one of his own in the 3rd to make it 2-0. After Vlad's 1st HR tied the game, Keibert Ruiz singled in Brujan, who had doubled, in the 6th. After Anderson left it was a parade of relievers with scoreless innings from Aaron Ashby in the 9th, Jasseel De La Cruz in the 10th, Jose Alvarado in the 11th and finally Liam Hendriks in the 12th, who of course picked up the win. The relievers were all very pitch-efficient with De La Cruz's 17 the only one who had a double-digit pitch count.

Around MLB, some news on recent Rays no longer with the club: Nick Schnell went 3-4 with 3 singles as the Cubs' DH today in a game at Anaheim. In that same game Sandy Gaston gave up 2 runs and 4 hits in 2 2/3 innings. Zach Britton, whom the White Sox took from us in the Rule 5 draft, was 2-4 with a solo HR and a double. Austin Meadows was 0-3 with 2 walks in his Brewers debut as they lost their opener 4-2 to the Giants and another former Ray, Walker Buehler. Elsewhere, Kyle Tucker, who had 66 HR and 232 RBI over the last two seasons, and is only 29, had to end up signing a minor league deal with the Cubs.

Game 3: More drama at the Trop where the Rays scored 3 in the bottom of the 9th to complete a comeback from 5-0 down and walk it off again against Toronto 6-5. Nate Pearson struggled again to close it out for Toronto, and after he allowed a Judson Fabian HR last night, he gave up a one-out Spencer Torkelson shot to make it 5-4. But he struck out Fabian for the second out and things looked bleak. But he then lost the plate, walking Keston Hiura and Triston Casas, and Bramdon Perez singled to load the bases. Brandon Marsh then beat out a slow roller past the mound to tie the game, and Matt Wisler came in and walked Vidal Brujan to force in the winning run. Brujan was on base all 6 times up, going 3-3 with 3 walks. The 9th-inning comeback was the last thing anyone expected to happen after a nightmarish 1st inning for Shane McClanahan and the Rays. Mac walked the first two men of the game in front of Vlad Jr. and well you can guess the rest. That made it 3-0 but things got worse when Keibert Ruiz misplayed a nubber in front of the plate and threw past Casas at 1st and that led to a couple of unearned runs. But Mac settled down from there, going 5.1 5 4 3 4 4, and the offense chipped away at the lead. In the 2nd, Casas, who got the start for Alec Bohm, homered to make it 5-1. After they scored off a Toronto error in the 4th to make it 5-2, Perez, who started at DH for Nick Gonzales, also homered in the 6th to get it to 5-3. Bramdon ended up 2-4 with a walk and that HR, while Casas scored 3 runs and drew a walk in addition to his longball as my lineup moves paid off. Of course they wouldn't have been in position for the 9th inning comeback had the bullpen not done its job and Asa Lacy pitched a nice 1.2 innings with 2 whiffs while Liam Hendriks and Aaron Ashby (who picked up the win) had scoreless frames of their own as the team goes to 3-0 with 3 one-run wins.

Game 4: The Christian Little era in Tampa Bay has begun. Yes, he was up late last season and even made a nice start, but this was his first start as a proper member of the rotation and it looks like he's here to stay. He went 7 4 0 0 2 10 on 97 pitches as the Rays swept the 4-game series from the Jays with a 4-1 win. I opted to have him start this game in the friendly confines of the Trop rather than in bandbox of Camden Yards (where Chris Paddack and his gopher-proneness will pitch instead, we'll see about that) and the decision paid off. The problem was that Tylor Megill was matching Little zero for zero through 5 before the offense finally got to him in the 6th. They did almost score in the 4th but Victor Reyes threw out Vidal Brujan at home and Brandon Marsh was caught stealing. But in the 6th Patrick Bailey singled, Spencer Torkelson walked and Judson Fabian singled him Bailey home. Triston Casas, playing at 3B today for Keston Hiura, singled in Tork, and Nick Gonzales ripped a 2-run double scoring Fabian and Casas. Evan Godwin came on for the 3rd time and did give up a HR to Gerardo Moreno but got through the 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz picked up his 1st save with a 1-2-3 9th that started off with a whiff of Vlad Jr.

Team record: 4-0. Next up: An off-day, followed by a 3-game weekend set in Baltimore.