Guess What Day It Is?
It’s finally Opening Day for Major League Baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays will be hosting the Houston Astros at Tropicana Field today. Game time is 4:00 pm Eastern time.
2018 Season
The Rays finished last year with a fantastic 90 – 72 record, the fifth time in the past nine years that they have eclipsed the 90-win mark. However, it is also the second time in team history that they won 90 games but did not make the playoffs (2012), finishing in third place in the American League East behind the Red Sox and Yankees, who each won at least 100 games.
The Astros, on the other hand, won an astonishing 103 games and won their second consecutive American League West championship. They did, however, fail in their attempt to win back-to-back World Series championships, losing the American League Championship Series four games to one to the eventual World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox.
Starting Pitchers
It will be #BumpDay for reigning American League Cy Young award winner Blake Snell, who finished last season with a 21-5 record and a minuscule 1.89 ERA, the lowest in the American League since Pedro Martinez allowed 1.74 earned runs per nine innings back in the year 2000. The 26-year old lefty was able to cash in on his impressive season by inking a five-year extension with the Rays, estimated at $50 million.
The Astros will be sending former Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander to the mound to oppose the man who beat him for the award in 2018 (Verlander finished in second place in the Cy Young balloting, just 15 points behind Snell). The 35-year old won 16 games for Houston last season but struck out a career-high 290 batters.
Starting Lineups
Tampa Bay:
1) RF Austin Meadows
2) LF Tommy Pham
3) 1B Ji-Man Choi
4) 3B Yandy Diaz
5) DH Brandon Lowe
6) 2B Joey Wendle
7) CF Kevin Kiermaier
8) C Mike Zunino
9) SS Willy Adames
The Rays are trotting out a great young lineup, with LF Tommy Pham (31) the lone starter north of 30 years old. Newly acquired 3B Yandy Diaz will be batting cleanup, presumably because of his career .500 average against Verlander, though the sample size (one hit in two at-bats) leaves a little to be desired.
Houston:
1) CF George Springer
2) 3B Alex Bregman
3) 2B Jose Altuve
4) SS Carlos Correa
5) LF Michael Brantley
6) 1B Yuli Gurriel
7) DH Tyler White
8) RF Josh Reddick
9) C Robinson Chirinos
The Astros boast one of the best 1-2-3 lineup combos in baseball with 2017 World Series MVP CF George Springer, 2018 All-Star Game MVP 3B Alex Bregman, and 2017 American League MVP SS Jose Altuve. In fact, Bregman finished fifth in AL MVP voting last season while Altuve has finished in the top 13 every year since 2014, including three top-10 finishes.
This game could go either way as Justin Verlander has an ERA over 4.00 in his career on Opening Day, while the Astros lineup has had success against Blake Snell in his short career. However, I’m going with a 3-2 Rays victory to get the season started off right.
How excited are you for Opening Day? Let me know in the comment section below. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter at @BeltsBatsBeyond as I will be in attendance and posting on those respective social media sites.
