ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ This opening act has been pretty good for the Rays.
Another impressive team effort produced a 7-1 win over the Rockies on Monday that gave them a fourth straight victory and a 4-1 record that matches the 2012 team for their best five-game start.
"It's awesome," said Kevin Kiermaier. "We sit here and talk in spring training how good we can be. This is the start we wanted to get to."
The innovative opener pitching strategy, which they unveiled last year, was in use Monday for the first time in 2019, worked pretty well, too. Pretty much as planned, with Ryne Stanek and Ryan Yarbrough combining for five-plus solid innings, and a tag-team of four other relievers finishing.
"It looked like the plan, the formula that we have kind of worked out like they hoped," Stanek said. "Anytime you go out there against a lineup like that and you throw the ball well and you hold them to one run, that's kind of what you hope for when the whole thing gets laid out."
And even the opening 0-fer by Brandon Lowe, who made up for most of his 10 hitless at-bats with one big hit in the fourth, a two-run opposite field homer that put the Rays ahead to stay. And he was only halfway to last year's career-opening 0-for-19.
"Tends to be elusive that first one but now it's out of the way and we can pick it up and get going," he said. "Anytime you hit the ball well and get hits it's always going to boost your confidence."
There was more that went into the victory, including a game-separating, properly struck three-run homer by Kiermiaer in the sixth and some more impressive glove work by early first base Gold Glove candidate Ji-Man Choi, but the story thus far has to be the pitching.
Facing two 2018 playoff teams in the Astros and the Rockies, the Rays have allowed only 10 runs total (the fewest for the first five games in team history) and only five in the last four. When Nolan Arenado doubled off Wilmer Font in the sixth, it was the first run allowed by the bullpen after 17 zeroes.
"You have to start with the pitching," Kiermaier said. "Other than the first game, credit to Houston for outscoring us, but holding these quality teams to (two or one runs) for the last four games, unbelievable job on their part. All credit to them. They trust us to go out there and score more runs than the other team. And I keep saying, "Guys I promise you if you hold these opponents to one run or less we're going to win a lot of lot of games. Easier said than done, but it's not surprising to me. ... They've been out here carrying this team so far and making our job offensively pretty darn easy so far. It's a beautiful thing and it's fun playing behind these guys."
Yarbrough did most of the work after Stanek's intro, and quite well over four plus innings. Especially since he was pitching somewhat under duress, and embarrassment, with cotton in his left nostril, though he did get a win for it.
"That was the weirdest experience I ever had, and I probably looked like an idiot," he said. "Just something weird that happened, a nosebleed out of nowhere, and I just had to deal with it."
The Rockies tried not to make much of facing the opener. Colorado manager Bud Black is a former big-league pitcher and pitching coach, and said he appreciates the creativity of the strategy but doesn't see it as something the Rockies would want to do.
"I have given it thought but as far as it relates to the Rockies we feel pretty good about our five starters and their ability to throw pitches into the sixth or the seventh inning and we don't feel as though we would have any advantage by starting anybody out of our bullpen over one of our starters.
"If you have maybe those type of pitchers and personnel that it sets up for, maybe you're not as deep in your rotation and feel strongly about five solid starters, then it makes sense to have a situation like what the Rays do." Though some AL teams have noted how use of the opener fouls up the pregame prep and planning by their hitters since they will face pitchers with different looks throughout the game, Black said they did work on all the Rays pitchers. "We talked about them all," he said. "It's not any really anything different based on what they're doing."
What the Rays were doing worked most of the 55 times they did it last year.
And it definitely worked Monday.
