Tampa Bay Rays: Charlie Morton rocked, Tsutsugo homers

Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Toronto Blue Jays on Opening Day. Here are the recap and takeaways.

Tampa Bay Rays‘ Opening Day starter Charlie Morton made it through the first three innings unscathed but the top of the fourth got a little messy for the veteran.

Cavan Biggio started with a bunt single to first base and was followed by a ground ball single from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to rightfield. Morton then walked Travis Shaw to load the bases with no outs.

Randal Grichuk lined a single to left to score Biggio. Rowdy Tellez and Teoscar Hernandez then hit sac-flies in succession to give the Jays a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth Yoshitomo Tsutsugo led off the inning by taking a slow breaking ball from Ryu to the upper back. The ball just didn’t break and appeared to be one of the few misfires on the day from the reigning N.L. ERA champ.

Mike Brosseau not only beat out Daniel Robertson as a utility bat on the roster but got the Opening Day start at second base over All-Star Brandon Lowe. Brosseau destroys lefties and Lowe is lousy against them.

Brosseau smashed a thunderous double into right-center to score Margot from first to make is a 3-1 game.

In the top of the fifth, Cavan Biggio absolutely blasted a three-run homer to give the Blue Jays a 6-1 lead. That would be Morton’s final batter of the game. Ryan Thompson was called in to relieve the veteran.

Tampa Bay Rays – Yoshitomo Tsutsugo Homers in Debut

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo got a vote of confidence from manager Kevin Cash on Opening Day as he hit third against one of the best lefties in the game in Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Tsutsugo, who started at third base, began his major-league career with a bang in the bottom of the fifth by taking Hyun-Jin Ryu deep on a 3-2 pitch over the outside corner. It was an impressive opposite-field homer by Yoshi. The two-run shot made the score 6-3.

Ryu would stay in to give up a double to Jose Martinez before calling it a day. The Blue Jays brought in right-handed reliever Jordan Romano who promptly walked Manuel Margot only to see Brandon Lowe get called in to pinch-hit for Brosseau.

That could be a theme this season as Brosseau is a true slugger and eats lefties for lunch and Brandon Lowe does the same thing to righties, but he eats them for breakfast.

Tampa Bay Rays – Bases Loaded in 8th

The Rays weren’t able to take advantage of their last real opportunity in the eighth inning. They were able to load the bases with one out with Yandy Diaz up to bat. Diaz popped out to second, just missing on a meatball that I thought for sure was going to be a go-ahead grand slam. He was followed up by Hunter Renfroe with a strikeout to end the inning.

Ryan Yarbrough will take the mound against Matt Shoemaker today at 3:10 p.m. EST.