The Tampa Bay Rays walked away from Bradenton with a 1-1, extra inning tie against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday. There wasn’t much offensive production to speak of, save for a Steven Souza double in the fourth inning and an Evan Longoria double in the sixth — which the Rays couldn’t convert into runs — and an eighth inning solo shot off the bat of Corey Brown; the Rays only run of the game.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alex Cobb looked opening day ready in his two innings of work, relinquishing only one base runner on a first inning double off the bat of Gregory Polanco. Cobb was able to get out of that situation by coaxing a pair of grounders to Evan Longoria — consequently escaping the inning unscathed. Cobb followed with a 1-2-3 second inning, including a pair of strikeouts (one swinging).
Overall, the Rays pitching looked fantastic Saturday. I live blogged the game in its entirety (well, almost) over at our Tumblr page. You can read all of the highlights in retroactive realtime there.
A few injuries came to light Saturday.
Earlier I wrote about the mild oblique strain Brandon Guyer incurred. Manager Kevin Cash didn’t specify the nature of the injury instead saying Guyer “tweaked something mildly” while taking batting practice on Friday.
“He gets after it so hard in the offseason and stuff. We just said, ‘Let’s slow him down for two, three days and see where we’re at,'” Cash told reporters Saturday morning. “Everything right now is very, very minor.”
Guyer said he “doesn’t think it’s serious” and that team is “just being cautious.” At the moment he’s taking anti-inflammatory medication, ahead of an MRI, and expects to return soon.
Tampa Bay also saw two starters walk off McKechnie Field due to injuries Saturday afternoon, but neither John Jaso nor Nick Franklin believe they were seriously injured.
Jaso reached base in the first inning when Pirates’ starter AJ Burnett plunked the Rays DH on the lower portion of his right leg. Jaso was pulled from the game in the second inning when he felt his leg tighten up.
“Basically [Burnett] was throwing a front-door two-seamer that stayed true. It didn’t two-seam,” said Jaso. “I’ll be fine. It’s all right. It started tightening up while I was out there on second base. Precautionary this early is probably smart.”
Jaso, who was slated to enter Sunday’s game as a backup in left field, will see his outfield transition pushed back a couple of days.
As for Franklin, the Rays utility player left in the fourth inning with a mild left hip strain. Franklin took a “half-check swing” against right-hander Nick Kingham, and said he felt a tweak in his side. Franklin was able to finish his at-bat (culminating in a strikeout), then was replaced at second by Ryan Brett in the bottom of the inning.
“I guess I just did it a little too fast and aggravated it a little bit,” Franklin said. “I feel fine. It’s not bothering me standing or walking or anything. It’s just a little tweak, nothing serious.”
There’s no indication if he might miss any time, and for how long if so.
The New What Next
Chris Archer is scheduled to make his first start of the spring Sunday against the Phillies at Charlotte Sports Park. Several others are slated to pitch, including RHPs Brad Boxberger and Kevin Jepsen and LHP Jeff Beliveau.
Rays 3/8/15 Starting Lineup
Kiermaier CF
DeJesus LF
Cabrera 2B
Rivera C
Forsythe 3B
Butler RF
Dyskstra 1B
Elmore SS
Maile DH
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
- In an article by Adam Berry (MLB.com), the Rays skipper owned his first managerial “mistake” in the sixth inning Saturday. Evan Longoria hit a double into the left field corner off relief pitcher Jared Hughes. After one pitch to James Loney, Alexi Casilla came out of the dugout to pinch-run for a confused Longoria.
“That was 100 percent my fault. I should have communicated beforehand with Casilla,” Cash said. “Casilla was ready to go, and I kind of disrupted Loney, Longo. It won’t happen again.”