Carlos Pena may have started the season slowly, striking out in all his at bats yesterday and starting tonight’s game with another strikeout, but he finally found his stroke in the 5th inning with a 2-run home run off Red Sox starter Jon Lester, leading the Rays to a 7-2 victory.
Scott Kazmir struggled in the early innings but by the middle of the game looked like he was in mid-season form, giving up a total of just one earned run to the Sox in 6 innings.
The Rays have Matt Garza going tomorrow against Daisuke Matsuzaka in an afternoon game starting at 1:35pm.
The AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays struggled against Red Sox ace Josh Beckett in a 5-3 loss on their opening day. Beckett struck out 10 over 7 innings and only gave up a single earned run. The Rays did get to Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima, who gave up 2 earned runs and only recorded one out. Carl Crawford had the Rays only extra base hit of the game with a double against Beckett. Evan Longoria added a hit and a couple RBIs. Carlos Pena looked terrible, going 0 for 4 with 4 strike outs.
The Rays have Scott Kazmir going tomorrow against Jon Lester.
B.J. Upton had surgery on his labrum in November and has been recovering ever since, but he still sees the Rays home opener as a possibility for his 2009 debut. The Rays first game at Tropicana Field comes one week after their opening day game against the Red Sox on Monday.
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