12:15 Update: Alex Colome has been hospitalized due to his battle with pneumonia. You can read about his hospitalization below — the update is in italics.
The Tampa Bay Rays dropped their sixth game of the spring, this time to the Philadelphia Phillies by a 2-1 margin, Friday. Despite the loss, starter Chris Archer put together a pretty good outing in his 3-1/3 innings of work. The loss can be blamed on the offense who was stifled by the Phillies hurlers.
Archer, who has been working on his change-up and a quicker delivery to the plate, gave up two runs (both earned) on four hits, including Ryan Howard’s first blast of the spring.
The Rays starter zipped through the first inning with a little help from Evan Longoria, who made a great play on a bunt off the bat of Cesar Hernandez. Archer was also dominant through the second and third innings — having thrown 40 pitches to that point (29 strikes) — allowing only a pair of runners to reach on a pair of base hits (including an infield single) yet things began to unravel in the fourth.
Chase Utley opened the inning with a line drive base hit to Kevin Kiermaier in center field, and Ryan Howard hammered an 88 MPH change-up to right — his first homer of the spring. Manager Kevin Cash allowed Archer to collect one more out — an infield popper to Asdrubal Cabrera at short — before pulling him in favor of Enny Romero. Romero got through the frame cleanly, racking up a strikeout along the way.
Archer threw 47 (35 strikes, 74% K/BB) pitches over the course of his start and collected three strikeouts (all swinging) along the way, including one against Howard in the second inning.
Howard talked about his strikeout and homer — also on a change-up — with Todd Zolecki (MLB.com),
He left a change-up up. I had a good pass at it. I feel like my first AB, felt good, felt like I was seeing the ball pretty well. He threw me a good change-up early on to strike me out, 3-2. But, the second AB, change-up up, put a good pass on it.
Archer also spoke of his ill-fated fourth inning change-up,
When you don’t execute something that’s 88 mph and you have a 30-home run, 100-RBIs guy, if you don’t execute, it’s going to get banged. And we have a lot of those guys in our division. … [It was a] 0-0 change-up, couldn’t-put-it-on-a-tee-any-better home run.
Still, as Archer told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), he was pleased with his work overall, and said there’s a learning moment in allowing the home run to Howard.
Unfortunately the offense couldn’t get anything started against the Phillies. Longoria proved to be the spark plug at the plate after going 2-3 with an RBI, yet Kiermaier, Cabrera, Desmond Jennings, John Jaso and Curt Casali seemed thoroughly baffled in the box — combining to go 0-16, with only three of the five reaching on a pair of walks and an error. This isn’t to say there weren’t scoring opportunities; Tampa Bay put together threats in the fourth and sixth innings. However Philadelphia’s hurlers clamped down and made the big pitch when they were needed the most. Meh, it’s only Spring Training.
The New What Next
According to MLB.com Tampa Bay will use something closely approximating his Opening Day lineup for the second straight game Tampa Bay faces off against Baltimore in Sarasota. RHP Nathan Karns will take the hill in his third start of the spring. Jose Dominguez, Jeff Beliveau, Steven Geltz, Jhan Marinez and Robert Zarate are also scheduled to pitch.
Rays 3/14/15 Starting Lineup
DeJesus RF
Forsythe 1B
Cabrera SS
Jaso LF
Rivera C
Franklin DH
Kiermaier CF
Beckham 2B
Elmore 3B
Karns P
Noteworthiness
Another bout of bad news for Tampa Bay, pitcher Alex Colome will not make his Grapefruit League debut this weekend, after being diagnosed with pneumonia. You may recall, Colome didn’t report to camp until last Tuesday because of visa problems, and now he is out indefinitely because of the respiratory illness.
The Rays skipper told Paul Hagan (MLB.com),
He’s got a case of pneumonia. [He] went to the doctor, they’ve got him on antibiotics and then they’ll just monitor it. He’s going to be out a little bit. So we’ll wait. We don’t have everything quite yet. We’ll know more tomorrow. But he will not be pitching this weekend.
The manager added that Colome is in good shape otherwise,
The good thing is he did come in shape. His arm was good. He was keeping up to speed with everything. Hopefully this doesn’t set him back too much.
While the team should know more soon about a schedule for Colome’s recovery, it seems likely the number five candidate would need at least a week just to get back on the field. Additionally, Colome would have to rebuild his arm strength.
Cash didn’t seem overly concerned about the state of the starting rotation. While no date has been set for Drew Smyly’s return to throwing off the mound, he isn’t worried about the lefty who is penciled in as the team’s number three starter.
I think a lot of pitchers go through this in Spring Training where their arm barks a little bit, gets dead, dead arm phase, whatever it is. I’m really not that concerned, Cash said. I think the biggest thing is that he was thrown out of whack a little bit this offseason. We’re being very cautious on our end, making sure that he’s good to go when he is. But everything from him, he’s kind of champing at the bit.
12:15 Update: Alex Colome has been hospitalized in Port Charlotte for treatment of pneumonia. Team officials said Colome is being treated with antibiotics and could be released by the end of the day today or Sunday.
The severity of the illness means Colome is likely to be sidelined for an extended period of time, which is not good for a team that is already facing the potential of beginning the season less two starters.
There was a scare with outfielder Steven Souza Friday afternoon, after he slowly made his way down the first base line on a second inning ground out to short. Although Souza went up the tunnel with trainer Ron Porterfield, he rejoined the team on the field in the home half of the inning. Souza told Topkin he’s fine. As for the mysterious injury? Souza slipped and rolled his left ankle a little in the second, but it felt better as soon as he got to dugout.