MIAMI _ Waking up early for a rare day-of-game flight didn't keep the Rays from capping the night with a celebration.
Avisail Garcia and Charlie Morton led the way as the Rays beat the cross-state rival Marlins 4-0.
Garcia knocked in three of the runs, hitting a massive homer in the second, rapping a one-out single in the sixth and beating out an infield hit with two outs in the ninth. A bases-loaded walk by Kevin Kiermaier, off ex-teammate Sergio Romo, scored the other run.
Morton gave the Rays (25-15) the strong start they were looking for given their short-handed rotation with six shutout innings, scattering three hits and, for the first time in nine starts not walking anyone.
Garcia's second-inning homer was the big blast, an estimated 471 feet.
It was the biggest hit by an opposing player in the eight-season history of Marlins Park, surpassing 459 foot shots by Juan Francisco (for Atlanta in 2013) and Hunter Pence (for San Francisco in 2013).
It was the biggest hit by a Ray in the 2015-launched StatCast era, topping 464-foot blasts by C.J. Cron on Aug. 18, 2018, and J.P. Arencibia on Sept. 7, 2015.
The Rays added a run in the sixth when Yandy Diaz singled, Tommy Pham forced him at second and Daniel Robertson walked. That set Garcia up for a single to left. And then another in the ninth when they loaded the bases and Garcia hustled down the line to beat the throw from third.
Coming off a losing series against the second-place Yankees at the Trop and heading for a rematch this weekend in New York, the Rays could conceivably look past the two games with the worst-in-majors Marlins, who came in with a 10-29 record.
"I certainly hope we're not overlooking this series," manager Kevin Cash said, as you'd expect, before the game. "We have not played very well against this team the last couple years, whether it's at our ballpark or at this ballpark. We've had our challenges. This team is young, they play hard. They've got a really good pitcher on the mound in Caleb Smith. He's had a lot of success. We've got our work cut out. We're hoping for a little bit of a bounce back start from Charlie (Morton) to get us going in the right direction."
Due to weather-related and maintenance issues with their chartered Delta plane on Monday night in Tampa, the Rays made the unusual decision to fly down Tuesday morning, with a 9 a.m. departure (and an 8 a.m. bus from the Trop).
Traveling on the day of a game is common in the minor leagues and for individual players who are called up, but only in extraordinary circumstances for major-league teams.
But given that it was such a short flight and the players would be in their hotel rooms by 11 a.m. if they wanted to catch up on rest, travel and logistics director Chris Westmoreland felt it was a better option than potentially being delayed for an extended period in Tampa on Monday.
Cash said the change in routine, even with the early wake-up call, should not have had any impact on how the players performed.
"I certainly hope not," he said before the game. "It shouldn't be a reason. No effect, no excuse. We did the right thing. I give Westy a lot of credit for recognizing there was a chance we were sitting on an airplane for a really long time, and we tried to avoid that.
"We got here at a decent time if people wanted to be in the hotel and take naps or do whatever they wanted." The players, who in Triple-A often took very early morning commercial flights, didn't seem to mind too much.
"I don't think it was a big hassle," infielder Daniel Robertson said. "It was a little weird. ... I've already forgotten we'd flown this morning."
"It's the first time in big-leagues we flew on the same day there's a game, but we did what we had to do," reliever Chaz Roe said. "With (bad) weather coming in and something wrong with the plane, better safe than sorry. I think we'll be fine. I took a couple hour nap."
Also of note, some of the players with homes and/or family in south Florida came down early on their own anyway.
The Rays and Marlins wrap up this quick two-game portion of the annual Citrus Series on Wednesday night, with Jalen Beeks slated to pitch behind an opener for the visitors and Jose Urena starting for the hosts.
