Rays Win! Price Allows Dinger, but Relief Holds Strong

The Rays finally returned to the (albeit meaningless) win column today, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 in Bradenton, FL. The game featured 4 pretty strong innings from Price, whose chief blemish was a 2-run home run off the bat of lefty-mashing Matt Diaz. Other than that, Price collected a pair of strikeouts while walking only one batter.

In relief, the combination of Mike Ekstrom, Rob Delaney, Matt Bush, and Alex Cobb kept the Pirates scoreless through the final 5 frames, collectively producing 6 Ks and 1 BB.

Offensively, B.J. Upton had an RBI double and a walk, using both opportunities to practice his base running (1 SB, 1 CS). In a near complete reversal of Saturday's 1-walk performance, the Rays hitters collected 7 walks and only 2 strikeouts, Dan Johnson adding 2 walks by himself. A Tim Beckham single, a Desmond Jennings sac fly, and a bases-loaded, Justin Ruggiano walk later, and the Rays had their fourth four-run game of the spring.

Defensively, Casey Kotchman had an 8th inning error that Jose Lobaton later erased, gunning down his 2nd victim of the day. Also, Sam Fuld made a nifty play in the outfield, robbing Neil Walker of a sixth inning single.

Now, onto the important stuff: The Joints Leaderboard after day 1, below the jump.

(Note: The leaderboard does not reflect the results of the Shoptiontest, Part 1, which is open until tomorrow's leaderboard. Also, each correct GDT was worth 2 Joints.)