Aaaaahhh, the home opener...

Hi everyone,

If you didn't get a chance to make it to the Trop last night, I hope you watched on tv. The raising of the banners was very moving. The military presence throughout the banner ceremony was something to see, especially the military rappelling down from the rafters while the banners were being raised. The national anthem being played by local jazz prodigy B.K. Jackson. Old Glory taking up the entire outfield. What a night, and that's before any baseball was evening being played.

As the game began, the Rays set the tone early and often by taking walks, laying down bunts, stealing bases, hitting homers, playing defense and generally just playing baseball the "Rays Way." A couple of key points from the game in my opinion were Scott Kazmir getting a 2nd strong outing in a row with a low pitch count and the return of B.J. Upton. I am sure there are not many other centerfielders in the game that could have made the catch that B.J. did early in the game on the long drive by Xavier Nady. Click here for a link to the video on MLB.com.

In addition, Carlos Pena is certainly breaking out of his early little slump. He had 3 hits and 6 RBI's last night. The Rays also used the home field advantage last night. There were several plays where the ball just seemed to bounce the Ray's way, including 2 towering infield pop ups that were misplayed by the Yankees as the ball got up into the roof at the Trop.

Now, to look at this from another angle, while the Rays won 15-5, the Yankees were not at full force. I have no idea what is wrong with Chien-Ming Wang, but this is certainly not the same player who won 19 games two seasons in a row and was 8-2 before his injury last year. He is obviously not fully recovered as of yet. Also, the Yankees spending spree on Mark Texiera got a big scare with his left wrist injury and absence from the lineup. Reports are, however, that an MRI showed that it's not too serious. Even though they weren't at full strength, any win against the Yankees feels good... especially when you have 9 runs against them by the end of the 2nd inning!

To wrap up, all in all, a great home opener, lots of action, looking forward to tonights game when Matt Garza will be facing A.J. Burnett.

Until next time,
- Steve