The Tampa Bay Rays jumped on reigning Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello early, tagging the right-hander for six runs in the first three innings alone. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

The Tampa Bay Rays snapped their first losing skid of the season, battling the Boston Red Sox for a 10-5 win at Fenway Park. Shane Peterson homered in his first plate appearance with Tampa Bay, and Logan Morrison collected his first career grand slam during the offensive pummeling.


Per the WPA graph, the Red Sox never even had a chance. Source: FanGraphs

Highlights and low-lights from the ball-game follow:

— After cruising through the first three innings on 33 pitches, Chris Archer battled through a 34-pitch fourth, walking a pair of Red Sox hitters and loading the bases with two outs. Archer coaxed a full count grounder from Pablo Sandoval to end the threat.

From that point on, Boston threatened to score in every inning through the end of the game.

The Sox got on the board in the fifth when Andrew Benintendi singled home Dustin Pedoria, who reached on a two out double. Archer eventually was lifted after 5-2/3 innings, having allowed one run on six hits and a pair of walks, while striking out five.

The Rays’ ace was able to lower his ERA to 2.21, although his FIP notched up slightly to 2.05.

— Logan Morrison doubled to center in the second inning to start Tampa Bay’s first rally. Two batters later, Peterson homered just inside the Pesky pole in right for a two-run lead.

Peterson was recalled from Durham for the injured Mallex Smith. He became the ninth Ray to homer in his first plate appearance with the team.

Following the game, the outfielder told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) that he was just happy to be back in the majors, and doing well made it even better:

I had all day to pretty much think about it, that’s part of my routine pretty much every day trying to visualize. At the same time, you can’t really expect things to go as you visualize it. I’ve had plenty of days when I thought I was going to do amazing, I had it mapped out in my head and the next thing you know it didn’t turn out that way. But fortunately I was able to have a good day today, especially coming out first at-bat always makes rest of the day easier.

— The Rays extended the lead against Porcello in the third inning. Evan Longoria walked with one out before Brad Miller blooped a single to center, and Steven Souza Jr. walked on a 3–2 pitch to load the bases.

Morrison, previously a .245 hitter with the bases loaded and no grand slams to his name, ran the count to 2–0 before hitting his third homer of the season.

The slam gave Morrison a team-best 10 RBI.

— Brad Miller entered the game on an 0-11 (and 1-for-his-last-18) streak, and promptly struck out in his first at-bat. Yet he warmed up in a hurry, singling, homering to deep center, tripling and walking to end a double shy of the second cycle in franchise history. BA noted in that first at-bat how out of sync Miller was at the plate, so it’ll be interesting to see how his approach changes today and moving forward.

— One batter later (after Miller’s homer, that is) Souza turned on a Porcello fastball, and absolutely crushed it high and far into foul territory in left. A pitch later, he dropped his bat-head on a changeup and deposited the pitch into the first row of seats on the Green Monster. All told, it was an 11-pitch battle that Souza won.

— It bears mentioning, the reigning Cy Young Award winner had collected 15 straight quality starts dating back to last year entering the night.

— Topkin wrote on the Heater blog, RHP Austin Pruitt making the opening day roster was a feel-good story, but nobody can be feeling too good about how he has pitched. That he came in Friday with a 10-1 lead and couldn’t finish, forcing Alex Colome to pitch, was terrible. 

In all fairness, Pruitt has pitched to a .552 BABIP, i.e. he has been incredibly unlucky. Seeing-eye singles, cans of corn, and infield hits all seem to drop in on the right-hander. That stuff is out of his control. What is in his control, and what is not impressive, are his 1:1 K:BB, and 3.89 BB:9 ratios. Perhaps a demotion to Triple-A would do him some good.

The New What Next

The Rays and Red Sox play game two of their four-game set on Saturday. Jake Odorizzi will get the start opposite of lefty Chris Sale.

Odorizzi has shown both flashes and lapses of command this season, as he’s allowed three homers through his first two starts. When he’s on, he has the ability to shut down any lineup in the league, however, he will have to curtail his home run allowing ways. Odorizzi, was hit in the leg by a line drive on Sunday, although he isn’t concerned about it having any residual impact on his start against Boston.

It feels like a bruise, he said. I don’t think it’ll be a big issue.

Sale is a beast of consistency with really great stuff. The lefty was excellent in his last start, throwing 7-2/3 innings of two-run ball, allowing five hits and one walk while fanning 10. He has looked terrific in his first two starts, and now carries a 1.23 ERA and a 17/2 K/BB over 14-2/3 innings. He, however, has received just one run of support thus far. Key matchups: Peter Borjous (2-7, BB), Kevin Kiermaier (2-4, BB), Logan Morrison (1-3), Rickie Weeks Jr. (1-3)

You can read about the four-game set in our series preview.

Rays 4/15/17 Starting Lineup

Souza RF
Bourjos LF
Longoria 3B
Weeks DH
Norris C
Morrison 1B
Robertson 2B
Kiermaier CF
Beckham SS
Odorizzi RHP

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