{"id":223027,"date":"2026-04-08T06:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223027\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:02:07","slug":"cubs-crush-rays-behind-assads-scoreless-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223027\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Crush Rays Behind Assad&#8217;s Scoreless Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"submission-link-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.nationaltoday.com\/news?location=St.+Petersburg%2C+FL&amp;city=St.+Petersburg&amp;type=Update+Existing+Story&amp;headline=Cubs+Crush+Rays+Behind+Assad%27s+Scoreless+Start&amp;page=https%3A%2F%2Fnationaltoday.com%2Fus%2Ffl%2Fst-petersburg%2Fnews%2F2026%2F04%2F08%2Fcubs-crush-rays-behind-assads-scoreless-start%2F\" class=\"submission-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Got story updates? Submit your updates here. \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69d5e6760e34c.jpg\" alt=\"A cubist, geometric painting depicting a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays, with the players and field fragmented into overlapping planes of bright colors.\" width=\"1344\" height=\"768\" class=\"news-image\"\/>The Cubs&#8217; decisive victory over the Rays showcases the team&#8217;s ability to win on the road against top competition.St. Petersburg Today<\/p>\n<p>Javier Assad pitched 5 2\/3 scoreless innings and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Moises Ballesteros hit late-inning home runs to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 9-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>      Why it matters<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs&#8217; convincing victory over the Rays, one of the American League&#8217;s top teams, demonstrates the team&#8217;s ability to win on the road against strong competition as they look to build momentum in the early part of the season.<\/p>\n<p>            The details<\/p>\n<p>Assad was dominant on the mound, keeping the Rays&#8217; lineup in check throughout his outing. Crow-Armstrong and Ballesteros provided the offensive firepower with their home runs to break the game open in the late innings.<\/p>\n<p>      The game took place on Tuesday, April 8, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>        The players<\/p>\n<p>        Javier Assad<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Cubs starting pitcher who threw 5 2\/3 scoreless innings in the win.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Cubs outfielder who hit a late-inning home run to help seal the victory.<\/p>\n<p>Moises Ballesteros<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Cubs infielder who also hit a home run in the late innings to extend the Cubs&#8217; lead.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n<p>The American League team that lost to the Cubs at home.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago Cubs<\/p>\n<p>The National League team that won convincingly on the road against the Rays.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.nationaltoday.com\/news?location=St.+Petersburg%2C+FL&amp;city=St.+Petersburg&amp;type=Upload+Story+Photos&amp;headline=Cubs+Crush+Rays+Behind+Assad%27s+Scoreless+Start&amp;page=https%3A%2F%2Fnationaltoday.com%2Fus%2Ffl%2Fst-petersburg%2Fnews%2F2026%2F04%2F08%2Fcubs-crush-rays-behind-assads-scoreless-start%2F\" class=\"submission-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Got photos? Submit your photos here. \u203a<\/a>      <\/p>\n<p>        The takeaway<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs&#8217; dominant performance on the road against a strong Rays team demonstrates their ability to win against top competition as they look to build momentum in the early part of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Got story updates? Submit your updates here. \u203a The Cubs&#8217; decisive victory over the Rays showcases the team&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-223027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223027","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=223027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}