With Opening Day just around the corner, the Tampa Bay Rays will play their final game of the Grapefruit League season in Port Charlotte on Sunday. They will face the New York Yankees, who they will meet again in games five and six of the regular season in New York on Monday April 2 and Wednesday April 4.
Tampa Bay will start Andrew Kittredge this afternoon, while Ryan Yarbrough, Yonny Chirinos and Jose Alvarado also are slated to pitch in what amounts to a bullpen day. New York, reportedly, has sent all non-roster pitchers to Port Charlotte.
Rays 3/25/18 Starting Lineup
Span DH
Gomez RF
Ramos C
Cron 1B
Duffy 3B
Hechavarria SS
Smith LF
Robertson 2B
Field CF
Kittredge RHP
Noteworthiness
— Daniel Robertson is back in the lineup after being hit by a pitch on the left hand on Friday. Robertson was pulled from that game and underwent precautionary X-Rays following the game, which came back negative.
Robertson, who slammed his helmet in frustration on the railing in the dugout after the HBP, spoke about his reaction:
To be this close, winding down to the season, it gets you so you react a little bit. I’ve been hit in those areas before, where it’s kind of hit the knob, or like a deflection into the hand. But I’ve never been squared up right into the hand. So right when that happened, I reacted a little bit. Obviously, I wasn’t too happy. It stung, so I assumed the worst in the moment.
His fears, however, were quickly alleviated.
After I got some ice on it, even before I got an X-ray, I was moving it around and I figured I’d be alright. Got an X-ray just to be (sure), and it came back negative.
— The Rays are expected to make most of the cuts to get close to a 25-man final roster. Both the bullpen and the outfield are the last order of business for Rays manager Kevin Cash.
I know we’ll go in with the thought of having as much as we can ironed out before we leave Port Charlotte, Cash said. But realistically, that’s probably not going to happen, because it’s been a good camp and guys have been making it challenging on the decisions.
The bullpen, sorting through that. And then I think that fourth and fifth outfield spots, and how that shakes out is kind of what we’re waiting on at this point.
— Cash spoke to the Rays’ first-base situation, noting who plays and when will depend on whether a righty or a lefty is starting for the opposing team.
Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of left-right, Cash said. But saying that, we know that we really value getting C.J. in there a lot. We will have plenty of opportunities where C.J. will play against some righties. Brad is going to play, obviously, against righties.
But we have to do a good job of making sure (Cron is) getting consistent reps. In theory, it’s going to be a little easier at the start of the season, because we’ll be going against so many lefties. But we know that won’t last once we get through that first couple of series.
— As expected, it appears as though second base will be a platoon between Robertson and Joey Wendle, driven mostly by who is on the mound for the other team.
With Robby he’ll get some more reps, with Duffy and (Adeiny Hechavarria) taking a break here and there, said Cash of Robertson, who can play second, shortstop and third base. Duffy has come through spring really, really well. But the last thing we want to do is run him into the ground.