It looked like Rays fans were set for a joyous Opening Day, with the reshaped lineup scoring seven runs on a whopping 17 hits. Jonathan Aranda homered, multiple players had three-hit days, Junior Caminero reached base four times while every Cardinals pitcher tried to pitch around him.<\/p>\n
This game could have been a statement of intent from a group hungry to get back to the postseason in a highly-competitive AL East.<\/p>\n
But the story of Thursday\u2019s opener is how the Rays lost in spite of their offensive output.<\/p>\n
Fans spent most of Thursday trying to find out who was broadcasting the game, only to flip to the correct channel as the Cardinals were batting around.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen went five strong innings to start, allowing just one run on a solo homer from JJ Wetherholt. After the Rays big inning in the top of the sixth to give them a 7-1 lead, Kevin Cash rightfully felt comfortable going to his bullpen to pitch the final four innings.<\/p>\n
He turned to Ian Seymour, who was effective in his rookie season a year ago in a mixed role. Seymour\u2019s 2026 campaign couldn\u2019t have started any worse. He gave up five consecutive hits, including doubles to Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker. All five of the runners that reached base came around to score, as did three more.<\/p>\n
After Seymour quickly let the Cardinals back in the game, Cash then turned to two of his high-leverage arms, Garrett Cleavinger and Griffin Jax. Cleavinger let the hit parade continue, allowing singles to Pedro Pages and Victor Scott II. A sac fly from Wetherholt made it 7-6, and then it was time for Jax. While there are no announced roles for any Rays reliever, it was fair to assume that Jax would be the top reliever to start the season with Edwin Uceta sidelined.<\/p>\n
The first batter he faced was DH Ivan Herrera, who was able to tie the game with another sac fly to right field. In stepped Alec Burleson, the Cardinals\u2019 most-dangerous hitter against right-handed pitching. Jax got him into a two-strike count, making good use of his sweeper, but when he grooved a fastball Burleson was sitting on it, and launched it into the right field stands to give St. Louis a two-run lead and cap off an eight-run inning.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s game one. I\u2019m not here to tell you the season is over, but after last year when Rays fans were frustrated that the bullpen could never hold a one- or two-run lead, it was even more soul-crushing to watch them completely capitulate against a rebuilding squad in the Cardinals.<\/p>\n
Now, we must sit in our misery on Friday\u2019s off-day, before the series resumes on Saturday. And instead of ace Drew Rasmussen in the mound, we\u2019ll have to prepare to watch Joe Boyle\u2019s electric stuff and erratic command. Boyle is not known for working deep into games, so we\u2019re likely to see another four or more innings from this group.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get positive for a minute. On the position player side, Kevin Cash seems to have a bench he trusts, and a roster that he can tinker with to get the most out of role players like Ben Williamson, Nick Fortes, and Richie Palacios. He can rely on his three regulars, and mix-and-match the rest. And on Thursday, the Rays\u2019 offensive approach was clear: see ball, hit ball. They swung early and often, and made lots of contact.<\/p>\n
Even if the bullpen does not take giant strides in 2026, I\u2019d wager that the Rays will win most of their games moving forward if they get anywhere near 17 hits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looked like Rays fans were set for a joyous Opening Day, with the reshaped lineup scoring seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,2550,68,82736,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-645790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","13":"tag-tampa-bay-rays-scores","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116299076846455692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}