Rays get 1st win as Yandy Diaz leads way with 5-hit, 4-RBI day

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — The 2011 team has a special place in Rays history, most notably for the dramatic Game 162 ended by Evan Longoria’s 12th-inning walkoff homer that sent them into the playoffs.

That 2011 squad stood out for another reason, as the only Rays team to start a season 0-3.

That distinction remains in place, as the current Rays hung on Sunday to beat the Cardinals 11-7 after blowing leads in the first two games of the season and losing both.

Yandy Diaz led the offense with a five-hit, four-RBI day, Steven Matz delivered a solid first start, and the bullpen did just enough to keep the Cardinals from rallying again.

The Rays took leads of 3-0, 6-1 and 9-4, then hung on as the Cardinals tried for a third straight comeback win.

After Kevin Kelly and Garrett Cleavinger flirted with trouble, Mason Englert made it interesting in the eighth, allowing two homers as the Cardinals pulled within 9-7.

Matz, pitching against a Cardinals team he spent the previous 3 ½ seasons with (until a July 2025 trade to Boston), gave the Rays a solid first start, working five innings.

His one big mistake was allowing a three-run homer to Jordan Walker on a two-out, 2-2 changeup.

The Rays showed off the versatility of their offense.

In the second, they got three runs from a Chandler Simpson leadoff single, an RBI double by Jonny DeLuca, a Richie Palacios line out, a passed ball, a Carson Williams double, a Hunter Feduccia infield single and a Diaz RBI single

In the fourth, Feduccia drew a two-out walk. Then in a span of six pitches from Dustin May, the Rays got RBI doubles from Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Cedric Mullins, who moved up to third in the order when Jake Fraley was scratched due to a sore right shoulder.

In the eighth, Ben Williamson singled, Williams walked, a wild pitch moved both runners up, then Diaz and Aranda rapped RBI singles and Mullins delivered a sac fly.

And in the ninth, Simpson singled, DeLuca forced him at second, Williamson singled with DeLuca taking third, Williams dropped a bunt to score one run and Diaz a slow grounder for another.

Over their first two games, the Rays had rapped 24 hits, but 23 were singles.

This was historical, as no team in the modern era (since 1900) had that many singles with no more than one extra base hit through its first two games, and no team had ever done that over any two-game span since the 2011 Braves.

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