{"id":174274,"date":"2026-03-01T21:46:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174274\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T21:46:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:46:28","slug":"rays-starting-lineup-against-braves-on-sunday-missing-key-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174274\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays&#8217; Starting Lineup Against Braves on Sunday Missing Key Players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Tampa Bay Rays will be back in action on Sunday with spring training rolling on against the Atlanta Braves. Coming off a bad loss, the Rays will be looking to bounce back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">While wins and losses in spring training aren\u2019t the most important thing, it was not a good showing for Tampa Bay on Saturday. A 12-3 loss certainly leaves a bad taste in their mouths, and the team will be looking to bounce back on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">What was great to see on Saturday was the return of one of their top prospects, Xavier Isaac. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/rays\/onsi\/news\/rays-talented-prospect-has-potential-to-be-excellent-power-hitter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talented first baseman<\/a> is coming back from brain surgery and was able to go 1-for-2 at the plate coming off the bench. On Sunday, he is slated to be in the starting lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Isaac Gets the Start<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Rays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#Rays<\/a> lineup vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#Braves<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Fpa5ZPvSht\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Fpa5ZPvSht<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBTimes_Rays\/status\/2028094395514314784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">Following missing a majority of the campaign in 2025, it is great to see the young prospect back and healthy for Tampa Bay. Having brain surgery is an extremely serious matter, and it\u2019s fantastic that he is still able to play baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">Now, he will be getting the start at first base and batting sixth for the Rays on Sunday against Atlanta. While it is great to see Isaac starting, this isn\u2019t the strongest lineup overall for Tampa Bay. Neither Junior Caminero nor Jonathan Aranda is starting, and this will be an opportunity for others to show what they can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">With a 3-5 record so far in spring training, the Rays would undoubtedly like to pick up a win on Sunday. However, it\u2019s important for them to continue to get looks at players who are fighting for spots and playing time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays will be back in action on Sunday with spring training rolling on against the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-174274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}