ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The Rays talk often about their core of advanced young talented position players they expect to lead the team to great success over the coming years.
Shortstop Willy Adames is considered the headliner, and is playing at Triple-A Durham with most of the rest of the group that includes first baseman Jake Bauers, infielders Christian Arroyo and Keon Wong, and outfielders Justin Williams and Joe McCarthy.
At some point this season, surely after the mid-June cutoff for the additional year of arbitration that can cost a team millions _ and possibly more than $10 million depending on how good the player _ they will start to show up in the majors. When they do, they'll join infielder Daniel Robertson, who has been emerging this season.
The Braves are ahead of the Rays. Having assembled and produced their own dazzling group, the Braves are done talking about what they might do and are instead raving about what they are doing.
That was obvious from the top of their lineup Tuesday. They had highly touted second baseman Ozzie Albies, who is 21, leading off and left fielder Ronald Acuna Jr., who is 20, hitting second.
And they showed that Tuesday in a 1-0 win, as Acuna mashed a 434-foot homer off Blake Snell for the only run and Albies made one of the biggest plays, spearing a line drive in the ninth to spoil a potential Rays rally.
"It certainly seems like they've got a core of young players that are very talented," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We feel pretty strong about our core and hopefully when our guys get up they can have some success like these guys are having.
"When you have young players come up you want to see them be successful. I think that's huge for their psyche, for the team, for the organization: Get off to a good start let that confidence build right from the get go."
The Braves have more coming in the minors, plus shortstop Dansby Swanson, currently on the DL, who has looked at times like he may be part of the group.
But Albies and Acuna are a pretty dynamic duo.
"We've been talking about these guys for a while so it's nice to see them here," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "They're young, obviously. And I always say they are all very talented and confident players. They have a lot of confidence in in their abilities and I don't think they feel like it's a stretch at all that they're here at a young age. I think they all feel like they're right where they should be. And it's fun. It's great watching those young guys. We've been talking about getting them up here and now that we do, they're making us a better team."
Did the Braves call them up because they showed they were ready, or because they felt they would help the team?
"I think there's a little bit of both to it because they are so talented. We saw in spring training that they're not going to be fazed by anything. They're going to have their bumps. It's not going to be just a cakewalk when they get up here. They're going to make mistakes. They're going to have times it's going to be rough on them because it's a pretty good league.
"But the organization, I know I do, I have a lot of confidence in those guys. I don't think any of them are over their heads here. I think they are right where they should be. And they help make us a better club."
Snell gave the Rays another solid start, working into the seventh allowing only four hits, the blast by Acuna the only one that hurt. He walked two and struck out five, throwing 105 pitches.
The Rays lost shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to injury on an odd play in the seventh. Acuna popped up a ball that stuck the speaker attached to the catwalk in foul territory above home plate. The ball was correctly called foul but caromed onto the field.
Hechavarria tried unsuccessfully to make what would have been a diving catch, and the ball bounced up and struck him in the face. The Rays had just taken Robertson, the backup shortstop, out for a pinch-hitter, so Joey Wendle slid over to short and Brad Miller played second.
