The Rays played all last season in the home run prone Steinbrenner Field, and made their return to the pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field by….hitting three home runs. They won their home opener against the Chicago Cubs 6-4.
Let’s start with the bad news. Anyone who had the wild fantasy that Shane McClanahan would return after over a year and a half away from baseball looking like his old self find today’s pitching performance disappointing. He was pulled after four innings, with the second inning standing out as his worst. He walked three batters and then gave up a two-run single. Honestly he looked so rattled I though getting out of that inning with just two runs scored was very fortunate.
Also troubling — his fastball velocity is down from high 90s to mid 90s. Can you be a successful major league pitcher with a 94 mph fastball? Of course! But when you used to throw 98, it takes an adjustment.
But the Chicago lead was soon erased.
Chandler Simpson singled. And stole second. And stole third. With Cedric Mullins up at bat, I was thinking Chandler should consider stealing home because Cedric has not done much with the bat. But I clearly underestimated the man (or didn’t think pitcher Jamison Taillon would actually throw him an offspeed pitch given how he struggles to catch up with a fastball) because he put the Rays on the board with a two-run homer.
The home run itself was a thing of joy, but my favorite part was watching Simpson’s reaction as he skipped down the line to score. Yep, Chandler, baseball is fun!
Taylor Walls, back on the team after his IL stint, then doubled (!) and was driven home by Yandy Diaz, to give the Rays a 3-2 lead.
We were probably all holding our breathes a bit when McClanahan returned to the mound in the third. He did retire the side quickly, on three fly balls, but one of them looked like this:
Guys who work hard to improve in areas of weakness are my favorite players, so lots of respect to Simpson, who has supposedly spent his off season working to improve his outfield play.
The Rays went up 4-2 in the bottom half of the inning, when Caminero hit a no-doubt homer — 106 mph, 400 feet.
McClanahan left after a successful fourth inning — presumably Kevin Cash thinking to lift him on a high note – and was replaced first by Kevin Kelly, and then by Ian Seymour. Seymour got himself into trouble giving up a series of hits and a sac fly to make the score 4-3, but he managed to get out of the inning without reminding us too much how he looked in the season opener.
The Rays hitters weren’t done however; in the seventh inning Jonathan Aranda also homered, scoring Ben Williamson, who had drawn a walk, and giving the Rays a three run lead. Although closer Bryan Baker did give up a solo home run in the ninth, the Rays bullpen was on the whole quite effective, with Hunter Bigge contributing 1.2 strong innings.
The Rays won today with the continued offensive strength of Yandy Diaz and Chandler Simpson (two hits each), and less expected contributions from Taylor Walls and Cedric Mullins. It is great to see the bullpen settling down, and those of us who looked forward to the return of Hunter Bigge – both for his skills and the endless possibility for puns — are pleased to see that he hasn’t seem to have lost a step.
