Opening day is supposed to bring a sense of optimism. The return of spring...the return of baseball...hot dogs...fresh cut grass...and everybody is tied for first place. Four Oriole long balls and 9 runs later, the air is slipping from the balloon a little bit. This is the one team in the division that we have a chance of leap-frogging out of the cellar this season. We can live with one ugly loss. Heck we are Devil Rays fans...we can live with a LOT of ugly losses. However, we don't need the team to be struck with the injury bug this season. The talent is there, but the team is not deep, especially in the pitching department. That being said...for all the bad that happened on opening day, that which should concern us the most is loss of two players to injuries right off the bat. SS Julio Lugo went down with a strained oblique and backup SS Luis Ordaz aggravated a knee injury suffered during spring training. Lugo's is not considered serious and is listed as Day-to-day. Ordaz, on the other hand has already been placed on the 15-day DL and is scheduled to have an MRI today.

Rays lose 2 SSs and opener [Herald-Tribune.com]