Rays season off to good start
The Tampa Bay Ray are right where they thought they would be. Five games into the season the Ray are in first place in the AL east a half game in front of the Baltimore Orioles.
The Orioles are 3-1, while the Red Sox are 1-4. It’s early and there is a ton of baseball yet to be played, but things could not be going better for the Rays.
After taking three of four from the Astros opening weekend, the Rays continued their winning ways with a 7-1 over the Colorado Rockies.
Ryne Stanek, and Ryan Yarborough pitched the first five innings before turning it over to the bullpen and they held the Rockies in check the rest of the way.
Brandon Lowe snapped his 0-10 streak with a two run homer in the first to give the Rays a 2-0 lead and the Ryas made that lead hold up.
Kevin Kiermaier added a three run homer in the sixth that put the Rays up 6-1.
It's awesome,'' said centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier. "We sit here and talk in spring training how good we can be. This is the start we wanted to get.''
With the reigning AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell on the mound for the Rays tonight, the odds are good that they will go to 5-1 and continue the best start through the first six games of the season in franchise history.
The Rays have called up Hernando High prospect Christian Arroyo from Durham. Arroyo was disappointed to be one of the first cuts in spring training will replace second basemen Joey Wendle on the roster.
Wendle suffered a hamstring injury against the Astros on Sunday afternoon and was placed on the DL.
The Rays now have two starting infielders on the DL. Matt Duffy who was penciled in to be the starting third basemen will be out until at least mid May.
With Wendle now out, the Rays have two of their starting infielders out till further notice.
The attendance which has been an ongoing issue for the Rays, had decent crowds all weekend against the Astros averaging over 18,000 per game.
Monday night alamost 11,000 showed up to see the Rays and Rockies and the Rays should have a decent crowd tonite with Blake Snell on the mound.
The Rays pitching has been outstanding so far this season. Kevin Keirmaier said he told the pitching staff if they can hold the Rays to one or two runs they will win a lot of games.
The season is only five games old, but the results are just what the doctored ordered for this Rays team.
