As for Odorizzi, the righty told Topkin that he felt better this morning, mentioning that he was able to move around and had no discomfort when sneezing or coughing, “I’m optimistic.”
The elephant in the room, the Rays tend to be cautious in their handling of pitchers.
We have to be smart with him, Cash said in his pre-game presser. The last thing we want to do is get him out there and test it, and then something more or worse happens.
For context, Alex Cobb sustained an oblique strain last season and missed more than five weeks.
Cash said it was “fair to say” Odorizzi would miss some time, continuing with “I don’t think we’re ready to totally commit that yet. Let’s wait and see what the doctor says.”
Logan Forsythe helped the Tampa Bay Rays notch their fourth straight win by hitting a towering home run off former Ray Fernando Rodney — breaking a 0-0 deadlock top of the ninth. Meanwhile Kevin Jepsen pulled a Houdini act in the bottom half of the frame, solidifying the Rays 1-0 win over Seattle. The victory was bittersweet, however, coming on a night where Jake Odorizzi was pulled after 4-1/3 innings with what has been called left oblique tightness. Tampa Bay, who is now 30-26 on the year, starts the day four games over .500 and a half game out of first in the AL East.
Tampa Bay entered the contest with an MLB most 15 different players on the disabled list — a list that plateaued at 17. Odorizzi, who pitched into the seventh inning in 10 of his previous 11 starts, anchored a staff that found three of its top starters (Alex Cobb, Drew Smyly and Matt Moore) on the DL.
Odorizzi could be the 16th active player on the DL after he departed just 4-1/3 innings and 75 pitches (50 for strikes, 66% K%) into the game.
The ill-fated fifth inning began with an infield single off the bat of Brad miller, Odorizzi awkwardly avoided a collision with Evan Longoria, and a Mike Zunino ground out to first. The righty took the hill against Dustin Ackley, and acted as though something may be wrong on his left side over the course of the four-pitch plate appearance, culminating in a walk.
Yet Odorizzi insisted in an interview following the game that he didn’t feel anything until after he threw his next pitch, to Logan Morrison, when he — clearly wincing — grabbed at his left side and nearly doubled over:
I felt it on that one pitch, it tightened up. It grabbed me. And that was that. You get grabbed and you really don’t know what’s going on type of thing.
Rays manager Kevin Cash and assistant athletic trainer Paul Harker quickly made their way to the mound and made the decision to pull Odorizzi in spite of he wanting to throw another pitch, hoping it was just a cramp.
Odorizzi downplayed the injury:
More startling than anything like that. I’ve never really been injured before and never had it happen on my side when I’m out there throwing, just the unknown, I guess, is more what’s going on than anything. Nobody knows. I don’t know. I could come in (Saturday) and feel half as good as I do now or a lot better. It’s just a wait-and-see process.
The injury was officially called left oblique tightness, yet the team won’t know more until Saturday when they see how he feels. At this point there is no way to gauge the seriousness or how much time, if any, he may miss.
An MRI has not been scheduled at this point:
We’re just coming in tomorrow and see how it feels and we’ll go from there, Odorizzi said. See how I’m feeling 24 hours from now.
The team should know more about Odorizzi’s condition, and how much time he could miss, by tonight (Saturday).
It should be noted, a strained oblique can require two months to heal. If that, indeed, is the prognosis, the Rays would need to recall a stop-gap hurler to take Odorizzi’s place until Matt Moore is reactivated from the DL at the end of June. Taking into consideration an off-day on Monday, Odorizzi’s spot in the rotation wouldn’t come again until Thursday. Any replacement pitcher(s) would be expected cover four-to-five starts in the interim.
Xavier Cedeño was called upon to prevent Seattle from breaking a scoreless tie, which he did by coaxing a pair of ground ball outs from Logan Morrison and Robinson Cano.
Andrew Bellatti took the bump in the sixth and quickly retired the side on 13 pitches. Yet he ran into trouble in the seventh when Bellatto loaded the bases with two outs. The righty escaped, getting Robinson Cano to ground out with the bases loaded to end the frame, and then worked a scoreless eighth too.
Forsythe homered off Rodney to start the ninth, hitting a 2-1 pitch into the left field bullpen. The towering shot was his career high seventh Forbagger of the year. He was also handed the game-ball before getting soaked by his teammates.
Kevin Jepsen, pitching for a third consecutive day, allowed a leadoff triple to Austin Jackson to right center. Yet Jepsen struck out Brad Miller, got Mike Zunino to fly to shallow right (with Steven Souza Jr. throwing a missile home just in case Jackson tried to score), and then Ackley flew out to left, ending the game.
After three straight outings on the mound, Jepsen knew he didn’t have his best stuff, although he had enough:
Ninth inning, one-run ball game. If you don’t have enough adrenaline, something’s wrong.
Jepsen very audibly exhaled following the 27th out:
At that point all the adrenaline and energy coming out of me, I suddenly became pretty tired.
Jepsen was credited with his third save of the year, while Andrew Bellatti, who posted three scoreless innings, got the win.
The New What Next
Alex “El Caballo” Colome (3-2, 5.05) will take the hill against the Mariners on Saturday, pitching opposite of King Felix. Colome held the Mariners to two runs on five hits in 5-1/3 innings back on May 26, retiring 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. Hernandez gave up seven runs on six hits and five walks in 4-2/3 innings on Monday to the Yankees. He has a 16-inning scoreless streak against the Rays and is 5-0 with a 1.61 ERA in nine Safeco Field starts against them. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 6/6/15 Starting Lineup
Kiermaier CF
Butler DH
DeJesus LF
Forsythe 2B
Souza RF
Cabrera SS
Elmore 3B
Franklin 1B
Rivera C
Colome RHP
Noteworthiness
— Evan Longoria isn’t in the lineup tonight. Jake Elmore will shift to third and Nick Franklin will take over first base for the first time in his major league career.
Longoria is 6-27 with an RBI, three walks and 11 strikeouts vs. King Felix. Per Roger Mooney (Tampa Tribune), Cash said you look to see who needs a day off when planning a lineup for a guy like Hernandez. This is only the second day off this season for Longo, although it is certainly an odd time for a day off since the team is off Monday.
— At 6-2 on the road trip (thus far), Tampa Bay is assured to come home with a plus .500 record on its westward jaunt.
— The Rays optioned RHP Andrew Bellatti to Triple-A Durham after the game and recalled LHP Enny Romero, citing the need for a fresh arm in the ‘pen.
— Announcing our next watch party on July 3, when the Rays take on the Tankees.