, providing a two-run cushion for closer Alex Colome to earn a save.The Red Sox lost in Alex Cora's first game as a major league manager. They wasted a superb start from Sale, who showed no ill effects from being hit by a line drive in the hip in his final spring training start. The 2017 big league strikeout leader fanned nine and walked three.Matt Barnes pitched the seventh for Boston, which let the game slip away after Joe Kelly entered in the eighth.The Rays, who acquired Span in a December trade that sent Evan Longoria to San Francisco, rallied with the help of all those walks, one with the bases loaded to trim their deficit to 4-2.Boston built a 4-0 lead against Rays starter Chris Archer, with Eduardo Nunez hitting a two-run, inside-the-park homer and Rafael Devers driving in two runs with a seventh-inning double and a RBI grounder in the second.Archer allowed four runs and six hits in six-plus innings. The two-time All-Star was in danger of falling to 2-13 lifetime against Boston before Span, who grew up in Tampa, delivered his first hit as a Ray.The Rays traded Longoria, their most recognizable player, in December. They dealt pitcher Jake Odorizzi and outfielders Corey Dickerson and Steven Souza Jr., during spring training in salary-slashing moves. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier is the only Rays player who started last year's opener.TRAINER'S ROOMRed Sox: 2B Dustin Pedroia, on the disabled list following left knee surgery, had a streak of consecutive starts on opening day end at 11. ... LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (right knee surgery) worked four innings in a minor league spring training game.Rays: There's no definitive timetable for RHP Nathan Eovaldi to return from arthroscopic surgery for loose bodies in his pitching elbow. He was sharp in his final spring training outing Monday, however manager Kevin Cash said the following night the pitcher noticed the first sign of a problem when he woke up with swelling in the elbow.UP NEXTRed Sox: LHP David Price (6-3, 3.38 ERA in 2017) faces his former team in the second game of a four-game series. Price was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft and pitched for the Rays from 2008-2014, winning the AL Cy Young Award in 2012. He's 3-3 with a 3.91 ERA in nine appearances, including eight starts, against his old team.Rays: LHP Blake Snell (5-7, 4.04 in 2017) looks to build on improvement he showed over his final 10 starts of last season, when he went 5-1 with a 2.84 ERA after being recalled from the minors on Aug. 8.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Red Sox ace Sale looks to extend mastery of Rays 4h ago• 2 min read ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Their teams are in decidedly different places, with the Boston Red Sox coming off a second straight American League East title and the Tampa Bay Rays wondering if they can field a .500 team in 2018.But Chris Sale and Chris Archer will go head-to-head Thursday afternoon on Opening Day, two of the AL's top three strikeout pitchers opening another year's division rivalry.Their histories against the other team are also at opposite extremes -- Sale went 4-1 against the Rays last season, with a 2.66 ERA and 66 strikeouts in six starts, including four outings with at least 12 strikeouts."It's a big deal," Sale said of his fourth career Opening Day start. "It's the most exciting day in baseball, other than the playoffs. I'm sure every stadium sells out. You're starting the journey, and you prepare for this during the offseason, during spring training. ... To finally get it under way is exciting." Archer wasn't nearly as fortunate against Boston, going 1-1 with a 5.87 ERA, and even that was a personal improvement.For his career, Archer is 2-12 against the Red Sox, a nemesis of sorts. He won on April 14 last year, holding Boston to one run in 5 2/3 innings, but couldn't get the win in any of his other starts the rest of his season.Sale was 4-4 against the Rays entering the 2017 season but dominated them in helping Boston win an 11-8 season series. Sale finished 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA.Archer (10-12, 4.07) likes to approach every game in the same manner, regardless of opponent, or whether you're on the mound for a fourth straight Opening Day."I'm human. Don't get me wrong," Archer said of his emotions entering the game. "I'm not going to say I'm going to sleep perfectly tonight and not wake up early, but I try to make it as normal as possible. ... In order to be a successful team, I talked about having bumps in the road -- the quicker you can put those behind you and turn the page, the more successful you're going to be." For Boston's success in winning back-to-back division titles, they have just one postseason win to show for it, getting swept by the Cleveland Indians on their way to the World Series in 2016, then losing 3-1 to the Houston Astros on their way to a championship last year.The Red Sox added outfielder J. D. Martinez, who hit 45 home runs last season with the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks.The Rays had much more subtractions -- third baseman Evan Longoria was traded to the San Francisco Giants, outfielder Steven Souza to the Diamondbacks and starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Minnesota Twins, all for prospects. The replacements are budget-value guys like outfielder Denard Span, first baseman C. J. Cron and outfielder Carlos Gomez.Tampa Bay went 80-82 last season, but the offseason exodus combined with a rash of pitching injuries would make even that an ambitious goal for success. Both teams get a first chance to set the tone for 2018, starting at 4:10 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field.
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