Key Highlights :
1. The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Washington Nationals 6-2.
2. Luke Raley homered twice and Drew Rasmussen pitched six shutout innings.
3. Isaac Paredes had a homer and a single for the Rays.
4. Rasmussen (1-0) allowed two singles and didn’t walk a batter while striking out seven.
5. Trevor Williams (0-1) allowed four runs - three earned - and six hits over five innings in his Nationals debut.
6. Jeimer Candelario homered and Dominic Smith had two hits for Washington.
7. Washington went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and is 2 for 23 over four games.
8. Williams his first two batters before Randy Arozarena beat out an infield single and Raley homered on the next pitch.
9. Francisco Mejía hit a sacrifice fly in the second after a pair of infield singles, and Paredes led off the fourth with a home run.
10. Candelario reached on second baseman Brandon Lowe’s fielding error starting the seventh and scred on Lane Thomas’ groundout.
11. Raley added a solo homer off Mason Thompson in the eighth.
12. RHP Josh Fleming is listed as the Tuesday starter for the Rays, but manager Kevin Cash said the Rays may use an opener in front of him.
13. RHP Chad Kuhl makes his Nationals debut.
The Tampa Bay Rays are off to their first 4-0 start in team history and it was all thanks to the pitching of Drew Rasmussen. Rasmussen pitched six shutout innings and Luke Raley homered twice to help the Rays take down the Washington Nationals 6-2 Monday night. This was the first time that the Rays had ever started the season 4-0 and it was a huge victory for them. The Rays are now one game behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL East standings.
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