TB Rays honor Roberto Clemente Day with an all Latin-American starting lineup

By Josiah Bartlett, Sports Editor, The Pawprint

September 15th is the day where baseball fans celebrate the legacy of Puerto Rican, Roberto Clemente. This day was established by the MLB. The Tampa Bay Rays honored this day by having all 9 of the starters as Latinos.

According to the Rays manager Kevin Cash, he wanted to create a lineup that was based on the batters that he wanted facing Toronto’s right-handed pitcher, Kevin Gausman. Kevin said, “We’ve got Gausman as a reverse-split guy, so we loaded with right-handed batters. It just worked out that they were all Latinos.” The Rays ended up winning the game 11-0.

The Rays nine starters were from 5 different countries: Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. Third-baseman Yandy Diaz said, “I’m very happy, especially on a day like today. I think that Latinos are really putting a stamp on the game.” Diaz also said that he had hoped to put his jersey and a lineup card in a frame to remember the historic day.