First things first: The Rays, as a team, get an A+ for their come-from-behind, beating-the-Sox-on-the-day-Sale-started 6-4 Opening Day victory.
That being said, we prefer a bit more nuance than a “Y’all get A pluses; I’m out” approach to breaking down just who stood out the most, and who got lucky their rough first game got pushed to the back burner with the wild win.
Let’s go around the diamond and hand out grades to the 10 position players and three pitchers who played a serious role in Thursday’s win. That means Mallex Smith and Joey Wendle, who came on a defensive replacements in the ninth won’t be getting any grades.