After many months, and a dizzying amount of hard work by the Tampa Bay Rays and the staff preparing the grounds at Estadio Latinoamericano ― to bring the field up to Major League Baseball (MLB) standards ― the Rays will finally take the field against the Cuban National Team in Havana.
President Obama, John Kerry, St. Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman, and other US dignitaries will be in attendance, as will commissioner Rob Manfred and other MLB officials.
Matt Moore will get the start in the exhibition game against the Cuban National Team. Also expected to toe the rubber for Tampa Bay are Ryan Webb, Steve Geltz, Alex Colome, Enny Romero and Xavier Cedeno.
Rays 3/22/16 Starting Lineup
Dayron Varona RF
Brad Miller SS
Evan Longoria 3B
Corey Dickerson DH
Logan Forsythe 2B
Kevin Kiermaier CF
Desmond Jennings LF
James Loney 1B
Rene Rivera C
Matt Moore LHP
Noteworthiness
― With his teammates in Cuba, Jake Odorizzi took the mound Monday afternoon in a Minor League game. Odorizzi slashed 6.2 IP/5 H/1 R/1 ER/0 BB/7 K on 90 pitches (67 strikes).
It was a great all-around day, said Odorizzi. My stuff was good. There was one bad split (split-finger fastball) in the last inning that ruined my day, but it was a great day. …Everything was coming out good, and the shape of everything was good. That’s really all I cared about today, was the shape of everything, how everything came off feeling. It was a bonus that we were getting outs.
Odorizzi will 105 pitches in his next outing Saturday in Bradenton before scaling back to three or four innings in his final Spring start.
― Photo journalist Will Vragovic (Tampa Bay Times) has put together an excellent collection of photographs from Cuba. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
― We created our own dispatch from Cuba. And while we’re not in Havana, it sure is nice to pretend. You can check that thread out here.
― While the Rays are eager to ‘reward’ the passionate Cuban fan base (link one), MLB’s goal is a safer pipeline for players from Cuba (link two).