Tyler Glasnow was fantastic in his final Spring outing on Saturday. (Photo Credit: Will Vragovic/Tampa Bay Rays)

Tyler Glasnow was fantastic in his final tuneup ahead of Opening Day, while the Tampa Bay Rays offense did just enough to eke out a win against the Twins on Saturday.

Glasnow fanned 10 across five shutout innings, scattering three hits (all singles) while walking a pair on 79 pitches. The right-hander coaxed 15 swings and misses from the Twins thank in part to his slider, which has improved from start to start.

I felt good. Slider actually felt pretty good in the beginning and got back to being good later.

— Tyler Glasnow

Tampa Bay also received scoreless outings from relief hurlers Diego Castillo, Andrew Kittredge, Pete Fairbanks, and Ryan Thompson, which helped quell the mind of Rays skipper Kevin Cash, who is still processing the loss of high leverage reliever Nick Anderson.

Everybody looked ready today. Things kind of came together, and to see all those guys kind of lined up, stacked up like that, especially with the news that we received the other day with Nick, it’s got to make you feel a little bit better.

— Kevin Cash

Meanwhile, prospect Dalton Kelly played the whole game at first and drove in the Rays two runs on a pair of RBI singles. Kelly’s second hit drove in Wander Franco, who reached on a leadoff hustle double.

The New What Next

Ryan Yarbrough will start the Rays play their final home game of the Grapefruit League season on Sunday when they’ll host Atlanta. Fellow left-handers Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Sherriff, and right-hander Chaz Roe are also slated to pitch. From there, the Rays will break camp, holding most of their workouts the following two days in Sarasota (Monday), and Lakeland (Tuesday).

Rays 3/28/21 Starting Lineup

  1. Tsutsugo 1B
  2. B. Lowe 2B
  3. Margot RF
  4. Wendle 3B
  5. Diaz DH
  6. Kiermaier CF
  7. Zunino C
  8. Gray LF
  9. Franco SS
  10. Yarbrough LHP

Noteworthiness

— The Rays manager alluded to what the pitching rotation will look like in the first four to five games of the season. Yarbrough, who will make one last Spring start this afternoon, will pitch in the second game of the season, and RHP Michael Wacha will pitch in the fourth game of the season on April 5 against Boston. And while the Rays haven’t named a starter for their third game, it likely will be either Chris Archer or Rich Hill. It’s also possible that both hurlers could appear in that game against the Marlins since they’ve pitched on the same day their last two turns.

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