After falling to the Red Sox on Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays (5-2-1) returned to the winning side of the ledger Friday, defeating the Detroit Tigers 5-2. Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough was impressive in his first start in a Rays uniform, Rickie Weeks continued to rake at the plate, and Mallex Smith made his debut with Tampa Bay — filling in for the ailing Kevin Kiermaier.
Some takeaways from Friday’s ball game:
— Yarbrough carved his way through the Tigers’ lineup, fanning five over two perfect frames, and throwing 20 of his 25 pitches for strikes. Rays skipper Kevin Cash called the start impressive:
He set the tone early. You know, he even got a lot of compliments from the home plate umpire Brian O’Nora …saying who is that guy? He worked quick, (was) efficient, had late action to his pitches so that was good to see. I know his first outing probably didn’t go as well as he liked, but it was nice to see him get a start and really just pound the strike zone.
(Audio courtesy of Rays Radio)
— Not to be outdone, the rest of the Rays pitching staff struck out 15 batters, and walked just one.
Two hurlers (among others) that are being slow-tracked early in spring, Xavier Cedeño and Alex Colome, took the mound, and each pitched a perfect frames their spring debuts. Colome struck out two.
Cedeño didn’t pitch the final month of the season because of a sore neck. He told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) it felt strange because of the layoff, although you would never know it based on his performance yesterday afternoon.
They’re just so efficient, manager Kevin Cash said. Sometimes they make it look easy out there, and it’s not. They command the ball really well, and they get guys to expand because they command the ball so well.
Jose Alvarado, David Carpenter, and Chih-Wei Hu also held the Tigers scoreless, with Hu working two frames. In his first appearance with Tampa Bay, Shawn Tolleson allowed a pair of two-out runs in the third on a broken-bat two-run double by Nicholas Castellanos.
— Rickie Weeks, who is trying to hit his way onto the team, doubled twice in as many at-bats. His line after five games: 7-10 with three doubles, two homers, six RBI, six runs, 16 total bases, a 1.600 SLG and a .700 OBP.
Weeks does not consider himself locked in, and is enjoying his first week on the field:
(Audio courtesy of Rays Radio)
Weeks, a second baseman for most of his big league career, told the media he is learning how to play first base this spring.
I played the infield for a long time, he said. (Fielding) ground ball’s nothing. Just learning positioning. Just be in the right spot. That’s the main thing for me.
— OF Mallex Smith made his spring debut a day early because of the stiff neck that has kept CF Kevin Kiermaier out of the lineup.
And though he he made a defensive gaffe center field in the first inning, the speedy Smith dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line in the second.
I love bunting, said Smith. I feel like it’s a lost art. I feel like I’m going to bring it to the table a lot. …It feels good because for the longest (time), that’s all I’ve been able to work on since I’ve been in camp. So to be able to go and execute right away is wonderful. It feels like hard work paying off.
Cash agreed.
The bunt was awesome. It was awesome to see a guy come in, do that and we got to watch him work on his craft for two weeks. He puts a lot of time and effort to it and, sure enough, he comes up and gets a first-situation opportunity. That was completely on his own. It’s good to get him out there. Now, we’ll start ramping him up probably on an every-other-day basis, as long as he’s good to go.
Adding,
The glimpses of shagging fly balls and stuff, you can tell he’s got pretty elite speed. He’s got a pretty defined approach during batting practice. I’m interested to see how that that works in the game, but he really focuses on looks, staying the other way, hitting the ball on the ground and utilizing his speed. So if that’s him, that’s interesting in the fact that we don’t really have that guy. He could be something interesting.
As for the error, Smith took full responsibility, and didn’t blame the gusty/windy playing conditions.
You know what, the wind didn’t play any part of me dropping the ball. I dropped the ball. But, it did make it fade a little bit on me. … But I dropped the ball. I was right up under it, it hit me in the glove. That should always be caught.
The New What Next
The Rays will face the Baltimore Orioles for the first time this spring this afternoon. Chris Archer will make his final tuneup before the World Baseball Classic. The right-hander is expected to throw three innings or 45 pitches, whichever comes first. Blake Snell, Tommy Hunter, Danny Farquhar and Dana Eveland are also expected to toe the rubber for Tampa Bay.
Rays 3/4/17 Starting Lineup
Franklin 2B
Sucre C
Souza DH
McCarthy LF
Robertson SS
McKenry 1B
Varona CF
Peterson RF
Hager 3B
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
— Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio), Evan Longoria originally was listed as the DH, but is now on the travel squad to play Sunday in Dunedin, and Tuesday in Tampa. Daniel Robertson is playing shortstop after Willy Adames initially was listed to play back to back days.