Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Longo-less Rays take game 1 of the Citrus Series

• The Rays were able to take Game 1 of the Citrus Series, and they did it without Evan Longoria. Longo got the night off due to his plantar fasciitis acting up.

• Alex Colome got the chance to redeem himself last night, closing out the 9th. Before the game, Marc Topkin questioned whether the Rays are asking to much of the young stallion.
• Before the game, Chris Archer addressed the talk of suspension that Blue Jays manager John Gibbons brought up. As per usual, Archer handled the question with maturity beyond his age (and beyond Gibbons).
• The All Star Game Ballot is out and open for voting.
• Noah Syndergaard underwent an MRI on his shoulder. That’s a terrifying sentence for anybody who likes the Mets or just enjoys watching awesome pitchers in general. It does appear like Thor will not be lost for the season:

Travis Sawchik over at Fangraphs wonders if this will be a cautionary tale, for both players and teams, about pushing to go even harder and throw even faster.

• Gift Ngoepe of the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first African born player in the Major Leagues. He wrote an article on the Players Tribune detailing his thoughts on being the first person to represent for his continent.
• There was a stadium marriage proposal, and it went terribly, and Boston fans acted like the “delightful” horde that they usually are. Charlotte Wilder shares a point that I strongly believe: proposing at stadiums in front of thousands of people is a terrible thing and you deserve every embarrassing thing that your viral 15 minutes of fame brings you.
• Speaking of those charming Red Sox fans at Fenway: “Adam Jones says he was 'called the N-word'“