The Rays Tank: Price's Busy Day

While the Yankees were giving away pictures for fan's twitter headers, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price was giving away 100 free tickets to Opening Day to fans around the Bay area.

Over the past few days, MLB teams have been reaching out to fans via twitter and giving away free hats, tickets, shirts and signed memorabilia as part of the #RandomActsOfOpeningDay campaign.

On Wednesday night, @DAVIDprice14 tweeted out a picture of 100 tickets for the Rays opening day game against the Baltimore Orioles on April 2^nd. The tickets are for the District K-9 section, and they are also redeemable for a district K-9 shirt while at the game.

Yesterday, Price took to the streets of the Bay area and started handing out these tickets to fans dressed in Rays gear. Price tweeted that he gave away the first pair of tickets while out eating breakfast. He then had followers guess the name of the location he was eating at in order to win a pair of tickets. The hint was "multiple fingers" and the answer was Pinky’s diner. Later on, Price gave away five tickets to, @Angeleyz65, a mother of three so that she could take her family to opening day.

He ended the evening by handing out more tickets to fans on his way out of Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Steve Carney of 620 WDAE tweeted.

Price is easily one of the most accessible Rays players on twitter. Chances are, if you tweet to @DAVIDprice14, you’ll get a response. David loves to interact with his fans...and correct their grammar when the opportunity presents itself. He’s also known for sending out a monthly PSA: "End of the month, drive slow!"

David traded in his tweets for cleats on Thursday evening as he pitched a gem in the Rays 4-4 tie against the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota. Price allowed one hit, one walk and collected three strikeouts over four shutout innings, lowering his spring training ERA to 2.12.

The Rays rallied early as Evan Longoria, Matt Joyce and Yunel Escobar all picked up RBI’s in the first inning against Orioles pitcher Jesse Beal.

The Rays 3-0 lead lasted until the fifth, when Frank De Los Santos gave up a sacrifice fly to Orioles DH Steve Pearce.

Evan Longoria went deep in the top of the sixth, launching his first homerun of the spring. He was 2-for-3 on the night with two walks and two RBI’s. Desmond Jennings also had himself a good night at the plate, going 4-for-5 with a run and a stolen base, his seventh of the spring.

The Orioles scored two in the bottom of the sixth off an Adam Jones RBI-double followed by and RBI-grounder by Chris Davis against Rays reliever Will Inman, bringing the O's within a run of the Rays. The Rays held the 4-3 lead until the bottom of the ninth, when CJ Riefenhauser allowed an RBI single to Kyle Hudson. Juan Sandoval came in for the Rays and got Steve Pearce to ground into a double play, ending the Orioles threat.

In the top of the tenth, the Rays had two men on and two outs with Evan Longoria coming up to bat. Clearly, O's skipper Buck Showalter was in it to win it, as he wasn't taking any risks and intentionally walked Longo to load the bases. Ryan Roberts struck out the following at bat. The Rays were 2-for-7 with RISP on the night and left seven men on base.

Beyond the fences:

• Yesterday, the Rays announced the new updates to their "Burst Pass" program for season ticket holders. One neat feature is that the pass can now be used as your ticket, and for every five games that you use the pass as your ticket, you’ll receive a voucher for a free soda, popcorn or hotdog.
• If you want a good laugh, just watch this Melky Cabrera strikeout…WHIFFFFFF!
• An MRI revealed that Mets pitcher, Johan Santana, has a tear in his surgically repaired left shoulder capsule. After throwing the first no-hitter in Mets history last June, Santana went 3-7 with an 8.27 ERA in his next ten outings.
• Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune tweeted out this preview for the "Who’s on First?" skit featuring David Price and Sam Fuld, that will air this Sunday on Sportscenter. My personal favorite line was Adam Jones of the Orioles "My boy who’s at first man, you got an attitude problem."
• Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times released his annual "Get to Know the Rays" which you can check out here.
• You can now purchase parking in advance for the games you will be attending this season at the Trop, but it appears to only be for Lots 3 and 4.