Chris Archer made his first appearance of the Spring in his second stint with the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, a 1-1/3 inning outing, while Ryan Thompson and Trevor Richards looked solid in their 2-2/3 combined innings of work.
Archer retired all four batters he faced, getting three groundouts and one strikeout while throwing 14 of his 25 pitches for strikes (56% strike rate). The right-hander ran into some deep counts against Alex Verdugo, who ultimately struck out looking at a changeup, and J.D. Martinez, who grounded out to short. Archer’s changeup (!!!) was effective, while his fastball velocity was “right in line with where you’d want it to be” said Rays skipper Kevin Cash.
Cash also made mention of Archer’s changeup and slider, both of which looked particularly sharp.
We were all excited. Commanded both the slider and the changeup. I hope he felt good about it because we certainly did.
— Kevin Cash
Archer said he, indeed, felt good about his first competitive outing in a year.
There’s nothing that can simulate this, so it was really, really nice to be on a baseball field with guys behind me. I haven’t been healthy and on a mound in a stadium, in that setting, in a long time. So it was really, really nice.
— Chris Archer
Archer should be ready for the start of the season — although he likely will go four or five innings to start the ’21 campaign — and will increase his pitch count and the intensity of his outings the rest of the Grapefruit League season.
Ryan Thompson entered the game in relief of Archer and quickly finished the second inning, retiring both of the hitters he faced on just four pitches.
Trevor Richards followed Thompson and was charged with two unlucky runs (and subsequently the loss) after centerfielder Manuel Margot lost a two-out fly-ball in the sun. Otherwise, the right-hander struck out four across two innings and was pleased by his outing, as well as where he’s currently at. He also mentioned that he added a third pitch to his repertoire: a slider.
Getting it to the same level where I can use it whenever. Just gives me another option to go at righties, lefties whoever.
— Trevor Richards
Richards told Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) he’s flexible to play whatever role he needs to, whether it’s pitching four straight days or four innings — something that was reiterated by Cash, who feels that Richards will play an important role.
Richie’s done well this spring. (Rays pitching coach) Kyle (Snyder) is very excited (about) where he’s at and how he can help us in multiple ways.
— Kevin Cash
The New What Next
42-year-old Rich Hill will make his second start of the spring on Saturday when the Rays play host the Twins in Port Charlotte. The left-hander struggled in his first outing against Boston, although the team is confident he will bounce back and will play an important role this season. Left-handers Cody Reed and Jeffrey Springs and right-handed reliever Chaz Roe are also scheduled to pitch. I will post the starting lineup upon availability.
Rays 3/13/21 Starting Lineup
- Meadows LF
- Arozarena RF
- B. Lowe 2B
- Díaz 3B
- Wendle SS
- Tsutsugo 3B
- Zunino C
- Kiermaier CF
- Kelly 1B
- Hill LHP
Noteworthiness
— Much has been made of the experimental rule changes proposed by MLB, which will impact the minor leagues this season. Solondz wrote about the rule changes, saying:
Taylor Walls, one of several Rays prospects that may have to adjust to the changes. Walls says he was OK with most of the ideas. However, he was opposed to changes that would require Double-A infielders to have to start on the infield dirt, and potentially eliminating shifts there.
“To me personally, it takes away from the hitters that are able to drive the ball to all fields or hit the ball back-side,” Walls said. “Now you’re taking guys that are limited to doing it only pull side and basically giving them an advantage to say hey you don’t have to drive the ball back side because we’re going to give you your hits pull-side.”
Walls says he’s all for changes that make the game safer. However, he didn’t think reducing shifting in Double-A accomplishes this. Walls compared shifting to the way the Golden State Warriors changed the NBA. He said you wouldn’t tell them they can only have three shooting guards on the court.
“When you go to changing the way some people take an edge on the game and how some people create advantages just by doing their homework and being smart, I just feel like that doesn’t rub me the right way,” said Walls.
Cash says he wasn’t worried about rule changes eventually might work their way into Major League Baseball.
“We’ll find a way to make it work,” said Cash, who added that if fans do feel pace of play is a problem, that he supports changes in that area.
— Neil Solondz
— Michael Wacha will throw a three-inning game on the back fields this morning. Meanwhile, Brent Honeywell will throw his first live BP today.
— Ji-Man Choi’s right knee is sore, and he will have it checked out by Dr. Eaton. The team is not overly concerned; Cash said Choi felt it was tight.