In honor of Jackie Robinson Day, the Tampa Bay Rays and visiting Minnesota Twins all wore no. 42 in Friday night’s game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Number 42 had a hell of a game for Tampa Bay, scoring five runs on 13 hits and recording all 27 outs defensively. While it was very much a team effort, no. 42 was clearly the difference in this one.
Much like the evening prior, the Rays got off to a rather sleepy start. They went down 1-2-3 in the first three innings despite getting leadoff hits in the first and second; Sam Fuld was caught stealing after singling in the first and Felipe Lopez was doubled-up on a 6-4-3 double play courtesy of B.J. Upton’s ground ball.
Rays’ starting pitcher Wade Davis looked neither especially sharp nor particularly off Friday night. WD40 had some great numbers – allowing only 1 run on 4 hits while pitching 7 innings – but just wasn’t particularly dominant. He walked two batters while only registering a single strikeout in his first quality start of the year.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2011.