2009 Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day Notes

by Tommy Rancel on Apr 6, 2009 6:00 AM EDT

Evan Longoria will make his first appearance on an opening day roster.(Photo by SRQMan)

The day has finally arrived; Opening day 2009. Here is a look back at the Tampa Bay Rays opening day history.

The Rays are 6-5 on opening day.
This marks the 4th consective road start for the Rays and the 7th overall.
They are 3-3 on the road on opening day.

Date	Site	Result	Winner/Loser
31-Mar-98	Home	Detroit 11, Tampa Bay 6	Thompson/Alvarez
5-Apr-99	Away	Baltimore 10, Tampa Bay 7	Mussina/Alvarez
3-Apr-00	Away	Tampa Bay 7, Minnesota 0	Trachsel/Radke
3-Apr-01	Home	Tampa Bay 8, Toronto 1	Lopez/Parris
2-Apr-02	Home	Tampa Bay 9, Detroit 5	Zambrano/Acevedo
31-Mar-03	Home	Tampa Bay 6, Boston 4	McClung/Fox
30-Mar-04	Japan	Tampa Bay 8, New York 3	Zambrano/Mussina
4-Apr-05	Home	Toronto 5, Tampa Bay 2	Halladay/Brazelton
3-Apr-06	Away	Baltimore 9, Tampa Bay 6	Lopez/Kazmir
2-Apr-07	Away	New York 9, Tampa Bay 5	Vizcaino/Stokes
31-Mar-08	Away	Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 2	Shields/Guthrie

The Rays will open the season against Boston for the second time in team history. The first meeting came on 3/31/03 and saw a memorable finish as Carl Crawford hit a three run walk off home run with two outs in the ninth inning. The Rays and Red Sox played a combined 25 times last year with the Rays winning 14 times.

Crawford will be playing in a Rays franchise record seventh opening day. Next on the all time list is Toby Hall (5) and a three way tie between Fred McGriff, John Flaherty and Aubrey Huff(4). Some of the more forgettable opening day starters include: Herbery Perry, Bobby Smith, Alex Gonzalez, Felix Martinez, Chris Gomez, Mike Kelly, Chris Singleton and Al Martin.

The Rays have 12 different names on this years opening day roster compared to last years:

Evan Longoria
Grant Balfour
Lance Cormier
Joe Nelson
Jeff Niemann
Scott Kazmir (started 2008 on DL)
Brian Shouse
Pat Burrell
Matt Joyce
Gabe Gross
Gabe Kapler
Ben Zobrist

In just six short hours, it will be time; Play Ball.

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Comments

"Halladay/Brazelton"

Oh, like that was fair.

by R.J. Anderson on Apr 6, 2009 7:16 AM EDT reply actions

6AM + 6hrs <> 2PM

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by kericr on Apr 6, 2009 9:42 AM EDT reply actions

In just six short hours, it will be time; Play Ball.

Hope so.

by rglass44 on Apr 6, 2009 9:44 AM EDT reply actions

It appears that they've officially pulled the plug.

No baseball for the Rays today :(

Check out my blog on web development at kericr.wordpress.com

by kericr on Apr 6, 2009 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions

All the knuckleheads are out in their new Sux gear here in Boston

by plasticman on Apr 6, 2009 9:57 AM EDT reply actions

How many have brand new THE CAPTAIN jerseys

Personally I’d like to walk around in a James Shields cup so I can show off how enormous my balls are.

Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.

-Al Lopez

by Sandy Kazmir on Apr 6, 2009 10:02 AM EDT up reply actions