After a pre-scheduled off-day on Monday, the Tampa Bay Rays are back at Grapefruit League action on Tuesday. Shane McClanahan will make the start against the Red Sox in Port Charlotte.
The Rays drooped their most recent contest against the Twins on Sunday, 8-4. Even so, Michael Wacha posted two impressive frames while Collin McHugh made his first outing in more than 18 months.
Wacha threw 15 of 21 pitches for strikes, across two frames while allowing a hit and striking out one.
I don’t like walking people, I don’t like giving up free baserunners. Just filling it up, letting the defense make the plays behind me, guys were making great plays and made a couple of pretty quick innings there.
— Michael Wacha
Wacha’s fastball averaged 94.4 mph and he also leaned on his cutter and changeup. The right-hander threw his cutter seven times and got two called strikes and three outs on balls in play.
Just keeping that in the back of their mind, you know, ‘Hey, I don’t have just that one put-away pitch, but I could be going to anything in any count. Just kind of keeping the hitters off-balance and guessing.
— Michael Wacha
Rays manager Kevin Cash was complimentary of Wacha’s stuff, especially his heater.
Liked the intent. I think that’s him when he’s right anyways. It’s refreshing to see a guy out there keeping coming after guys and he was facing obviously really, really good hitters.
— Kevin Cash
Meanwhile, after more than a year away from big league action, Collin McHugh threw 25 pitches in the third inning on Sunday — making his Rays debut. He allowed three hits and a walk while striking out one.
I got a lot of firsts out of the way today. First in a while. It felt good to be out there, man. Adrenaline pumping a little bit, being out there on the bump with the boys. … I don’t like giving up runs, so it’s a rough day from that perspective. But I think there’s a lot of good takeaways coming back from it.
— Collin McHugh
Cash liked McHugh’s approach and he mixed his pitches well, throwing four different offerings.
He just shows a lot of pitchability. about as much as anyone that we have. He can spin it, command it, pitch to the edges.
— Kevin Cash
The Rays are planning to get McHugh built up this spring to work three or four innings — in a bulk role to “see where it goes from there.”
Southpaw Cody Reed worked a perfect fourth inning on 12 pitches with one punchout and two groundouts. He boasted a 94 mph fastball to go along with a sharp slider. Cash said he was “impressed” with Reed’s stuff.
Finally, Austin Meadows launched a 414-foot blast to right-field, turning on a 97.4-mph fastball and sending it to the boardwalk. Per Statcast, the ball had an exit velocity of 108.8 mph. It was Meadows’ third homer in eight Spring at-bats.
I know it’s a first-pitch homer. It’s still 97 that he turned around pretty effortlessly. You can tell he’s putting the work in with Chad (Mottola) and Ozzie (Timmons) in the cage. He feels good.
— Kevin Cash
The New What Next
The left-handed Fleming is scheduled to start against Boston, and he’ll be followed on the mound by fellow southpaw Shane McClanahan, right-hander Andrew Kittredge, and high-leverage relievers Nick Anderson and Diego Castillo.
Rays 3/9/21 Starting Lineup
- Phillips RF
- Arozarena LF
- Meadows DH
- Díaz 3B
- Choi 1B
- Adames SS
- Kiermaier CF
- Wendle 2B
- Zunino C
- Fleming RHP
Noteworthiness
— As I wrote Sunday, Chris Archer pitched in an intrasquad game on the backfields — focusing heavily on his slider and changeup. Rays skipper Cash said the shape of Archer’s slider was as good as it’s been, while his changeup was effective.
Archer said the improvement in his performance was the result of a few mechanical adjustments. The right-hander got back to what he used to do, moving more directly toward home plate rather than becoming “rotational” as he delivered. Those changes should create more life on his fastball and more consistency with his slider.
I think a lot of it has to do with just my delivery, my legs being under me. And not feeling any stress anywhere on my body, I can repeat very easily.
— Chris Archer
Archer is tentatively scheduled to make his Grapefruit League debut on Friday.
— As Danny Russell (DRaysBay) wrote, the City of St. Petersburg narrowed the Tropicana Field site proposals down from eight to four. We’ll have more on this later.