The Trop as seen from the left field seats prior to the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day (Photo courtesy of X-Rays Spex)
The Trop as seen from the left field seats prior to the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day (Photo courtesy of X-Rays Spex)

The Orioles beat the Rays by a score of 7-4, taking the first game of a three game set to open the 2013 season. The Rays had their ace David Price on the mound, toeing the rubber opposite of Jason Hammel in front of a sold out crowd at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It was apparent that Price didn’t have his best stuff, though he was able to limit the damage and keep the Rays in the game until the seventh inning when LHP reliever Jake McGee would ultimately give up five runs and the lead to the Orioles — a lead that they would never relent.

Posting a 6 IP/7 H/2 R/2 ER/2 BB/4 K/1 HR slash line, Price got into trouble in the first inning after giving up a double to Adam Jones who was driven home by Matt Wieters on a 415 foot blast to left field in the very next at-bat. Wieters’ home run was the first Price has given up in the first-inning of any game since July 20, 2011, when Curtis Granderson went yard against the LHP. It would ultimately take Price 23 pitches to get out of the first inning, though he would calm down in the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Price did have a shaky third inning as well, having given up a pair of hits and a walk to load the bases with only one out. But he was able to induce a Chris Davis double play to get out of the inning relatively unscathed. The lack of velocity in Price’s fastball was noticeable, yet Price battled, giving the Rays a fighting chance.

“You don’t just come out here and turn yourself into Cy Young in the first outing,” Price said. “I’m fine with the way I threw the ball. I battled. When you don’t have your best stuff, that’s what you’ve got to do, and I felt like I did okay” Tuesday.

Granted 100 pitches (68 for strikes) in six innings may not represent the best outing, keep in mind that Price put together a quality start, and he was able to escape major damage which, as Joe Maddon put it, “Is also the sign of an excellent pitcher.”

The Rays would battle their way back into the game thanks to a fourth inning solo shot by Ben Zobrist, and a pair of sixth inning Desmond Jennings and Ben Zobrist RBI’s, giving Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead. Zobrist would end the day 2-3 at the plate with two RBI and a run. Jennings and Zobrist would ultimately account for four of the Rays six hits and three of the Rays four runs.

The Rays offense was slow to start, getting only two hits between the first and fifth innings. However watching Desmond Jennings do what he does best — swiping bags and getting into scoring position — was rather encouraging. That Zobrist and Jennings created the bulk of the Rays offense was no fluke. The success of both players is critical to the success of the team in 2013.

Evan Longoria and Sam Fuld both contributed defensively, flashing the leather while stealing hit after hit from the Orioles. All told, Longo and Fuld accounted for (at least) seven outstanding plays in the field. I’d imagine that any questions over why Fuld got the start in right field were answered. I’d also imagine that if his play Tuesday was an indication of what’s to come, we may as well just hand Evan Longoria the gold glove now. According to ESPN,

“Evan Longoria made a career-high 4 Good Fielding Plays (GFPs) as video tracked by Baseball Info Solutions today in the Rays loss to the Orioles. Previously, he had 15 games with 3 GFPs. Just check out the video (below) of a few of Longoria’s defensive gems.”

Click the photo for video of Longoria's stellar defensive plays Tuesday.
Click the photo for video of Longoria’s stellar defensive plays Tuesday.

Hadn’t McGee blown the lead in the seventh, the Rays would have won a very close game to the Orioles — something we’re all familiar with by now. The loss literally came down to a couple of misplaced pitches from the hard-throwing lefty.

At this point, my concerns are two-fold:

A. Can the Rays offense crank things up, and do so consistently?

B. I can’t help but wonder why Jamey Wright is on the 25-man roster. Wright, a pitcher with a career 56.2% ground ball percentage, was only able to induce one ground out against the seven batters he faced. Wright kept the ball up, giving the Orioles an opportunity to get underneath the ball.

We’ll see if the Rays can tighten things up Wednesday when Hellickson faces Chen and the Orioles in a 7:10 matchup at the Trop.

Rays 4/3/13 Starting Lineup:

Jennings CF
Rodriguez LF
Zobrist RF
Longoria 3B
Duncan DH
Escobar SS
Roberts 2B
Lobaton C
Johnson 1B
Hellickson RHP

Noteworthiness:
Another day, another lineup. Joe Maddon liked Johnson more than Fuld in the lineup against Chen, while he liked Rodriguez in left field with Hellickson — a fly ball pitcher — on the mound, so Johnson it is at first. Also of note, former Ray Scott Kazmir (right side) threw a 30 pitch bullpen session, saying he feels like he can start Saturday, but its up to Indians/medical staff.

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3 Comments

  1. I’ll venture a couple of provisional answers to your questions.

    As to Question A, the short answer is no. In fact, I think the Rays offense will be worse this year than it was last year. If Longo stays healthy, and if Scott gets healthy, I might be wrong, but the Rays lost a significant offensive asset in BJ Upton (who led the team in HR, RBI and SB and was second in TB and Runs) without adding much to replace that production. The ideal Rays batting order at the top of the lineup will be something like Jennings, Zobrist, Longo, Scott. If that’s the lineup for, say, 120-ish games, and if Jennings can improve his OBP, the Rays offense should be good enough to give the starting pitchers the chance to win some games. You can count on the rest of the Rays offensive lineup to be at or around league average. So, we’ll have to hope they bring above average defense to compliment what we have to hope will be well above average pitching.

    As to Question B, Wright is on the roster to do exactly what he did: spell the top-line bullpen when the game is out of hand. He’s supposed to do it by inducing groundball outs. If, going forward, he proves ineffective, there are several reasons not to fret about it too much. First, Wright will probably not be pitching in a close game. Second, if he can get outs without inducing grounders, the Rays’ll probably take it. Third, if he completely falls apart, the Rays can cut him and bring someone up from Durham. Put another way, Peralta and Rodney didn’t have to pitch today because Wright is on the roster. If the flyball outs Wright served up today turn into homeruns, Wright will no longer be on the roster. So, no worries.

    1. To reiterate, this might be a passable offensive lineup, and a good defensive one, but it will never “crank things up” consistently: Jennings CF, Fuld RF, Zobrist 2B, Longoria 3B, Joyce LF, Escobar SS, Loney 1B, Molina C, Johnson DH

    2. I agree for the most part. I used the phrase “Cranking it up” in the relative sense, in that I was questioning when we can expect the Rays to crank things up relative to their potential. Tampa Bay has some good contact hitters up and down the lineup, and if they can get on base consistently they can make things happen. A good example of that is DesJen hitting a single, stealing second and moving to third on the errant throw, then getting driven in yesterday. I think BenZo will play a pivotal role as well, though I’d prefer to see him bat second or fourth, in front of or behind Longo.

      I like the idea of Zobrist protecting Longoria, or being protected by him. I agree and disagree with the thought that Tampa Bay lost a significant amount of production when BJ — and to an extent ‘Los — left. On paper, the 28 homers that Upton hit is a sizeable gap for the Rays to fill. I’d contend, though, that the majority of Upton’s homers were solo shots. To that end, what’s the difference between Upton hitting a one run homer or Loney hitting an RBI double to the gap? I think that’s where the Rays and Rays pundits alike are squabbling over the details of this offense.

      As for Wright, though Spring Training isn’t a great indicator of what’s to come, Gomes is coming of an outstanding 2012 season and an excellent spring. Wright, on the other hand, is not. Personally, I’d have preferred to see Friedman pay the $100K retention fee to Wright, giving him a few reps in Triple-A to work the kinks out of his sinker.

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