The Morning After: Rays Outpitch Yankees???

Rays 4 (7-1), Yankees 1

The headline is correct. Welcome to the exclamation point edition of the Morning After! Listened to the game on gameday audio again. The Yankees have a female announcer. For some reason this shocked me. She was pretty decent though. Had the whole "calling them the Devil Rays, oops they are the Rays now, unnecessary laughing" thing again. Not having to hear this during every away broadcast may have been reason enough to not change the name.
Anybody go to the game? How many Rays fans compared to Yankees fans?

Highlights

• Garza! Although he got into some trouble in the first he escaped unscathed and ended up going three without giving up any runs.
  

• Price! We all got out first look at Price and it was good. Although he hit the first batter, he went on to strike out the side. His fastball was consistently 95+. Even the Yankees announcers were impressed.
  

• Gomes! His solo homerun gave the Rays the first lead of the game. I am legitimately excited to see him play everyday. Or even 3 out of 4 days with Ruggiano starting 1 out of 4 in right and also coming in as a defensive replacement in the late innings.
  

• Anderson! Brian Anderson made his first appearance in 17 months and gave up no runs and one hit in his inning of work. I think he could be a major help if someone in the bullpen falters or gets injured (assuming his doesn't break camp with the team.
  

• Aybar! Willy had a double and drove in a run.
  

• Baserunning! Once again the Rays were aggressive on the basepaths early on in the game. Crawford swiped two off Mussina in the first.
  

• Intensity! Elliot Johnson bowled over Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli. Although Cervelli held onto the ball for the out.
  

Lowlights

• Longoria let a ball go right in between his legs although it was not counted as an error. However, he did have a hit and scored a run.
  

Analysis

How can you not be excited about this start? The thing that gets me most excited is the pitching. There have been very few poor pitching performances this spring -- the starters are looking good and there are plenty of quality candidates in the bullpen. If I had to guess right now, I would say that Longoria starts the season in Durham and Aybar starts at third. However, Aybar may make the team anyway if Rocco starts the season on the DL.

PA