PHOENIX -- Robbie Ray has taken the mound at Chase Field 53 times to start games in his career, but Saturday evening it was his wife, Taylor, and her singing group that opened things up with a rousing rendition of the national anthem.
Singing comes as natural to Taylor as pitching does to Robbie.
“I’m excited,” Robbie said before the game. “She’s super talented. She sings all the time at the house to our children and has music on all the time. She’s been singing since she’s been 2.”
Taylor was joined by her sister Hailey VanderToorn and best friends Arielle Suwyn and Courtney Ploski. The quartet began singing gospel music together 25 years ago and have performed around the country.
It had been four years since they’d performed together, however, due to family schedules and being split between Arizona, Ohio and Michigan.
“We do want to sing more together, but we’re just in three different states right now,” Taylor said.
As Robbie reminded Taylor, he feels nerves every time he takes the mound so it is normal that she would have some jitters.
“She was having some trouble sleeping last night,” Robbie said. “I told her, 'It’s going to be all right, you’ve done this before. You've sung in front of a lot of people before.'”
Robbie stood behind Taylor with the couple’s two children while she sang.
“This is just really special because I’ve never done the anthem with Robbie out there,” Taylor said. “I think the nerve-racking part is how echoey it is so you just have to really zone in or else it could be a disaster. I wasn’t nervous to sing in front of Robbie, I do that all day long. But I was a little nervous with the echoing.”