ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays organization probably owes Willy Adames a cake or a freshly baked lasagna, maybe even a nice potted fern. Anything’s got to be a warmer welcome to the league than having to face a collection of some of the best arms in the Majors during your first series as a big leaguer.
In his ML debut on Tuesday, Adames faced Boston’s ace Chris Sale. In his second career at-bat, Adames became just the fifth player in Rays history to homer in his first career game and the first to do it at Tropicana.
“He’s faced two of the best pitchers in the division between Sale and (Boston closer) Craig Kimbrel,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It’s not going to get any tougher so, in theory, it should get a little easier from there.”
In theory, yes. On his second day on the job, Adames was in the starting lineup playing short and batting fifth against former Cy Young winner David Price.
Price went six innings, allowing one earned run on three hits. He struck out nine and walked three in a 4-1 win on Wednesday. The Rays’ top positional prospect went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He also had a costly throwing error that put the winning run on with no outs in the ninth.
It’s been that kind of roller coaster of a week for Adames. Price got him swinging on a chest-high fastball to lead off the bottom of the second inning and rung him up looking in the fourth. Adames flied out to right field in his third at bat against Price and struck out against Kimbrel to end the game.
Rays starter Chris Archer matched Price’s strong outing frame by frame, allowing no runs through the first five innings. Archer ran into trouble in the sixth after Christian Vazquez singled and Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi walked to load the bases. Hanley Ramirez would drive in the first run of the night with an RBI groundout.
Archer, who passed Price for second place on the Rays’ all-time list with 171 on Wednesday, gave up four hits while striking out six and walking three in the no-decision.
Big Willy Style
It has been a wild 48 hours for the 22-year-old. Adames got the call that he would be joining the Rays shortly after 1 p.m. on Tuesday. After missing his first scheduled flight, he was on a plane to Tampa Bay by 3:30. Just 35 minutes before the first pitch, Adames was pulling up to the Trop to make an emergency start in place of injured Aideny Hechavarria. Utility man Joey Wendle was also unavailable because of paternity leave.
Adames struck out in his first plate appearance against Sale on Tuesday. The second time around he took advantage of a rare mistake from the lanky lefty, depositing a changeup that caught too much of the middle of the plate over the wall in left field.
“It was amazing man,” Adames said. “You see all those guys on TV and then you come here and hit a bomb against Sale. It’s an amazing feeling.”
As an 18-year old prospect, the Dominican native was a key piece of the 2014 trade that sent Price from the Rays to the Detroit Tigers. He is considered the No. 22 overall prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com. As well as being a polished defender up the middle, Adames has blossomed offensively this season. In 40 games with Durham, Adames was batting .311 with a .864 OPS and 12 extra-base hits in 173 plate appearances.
“He’s held himself very well,” Cash said. “Looked good offensively and he’s going to get more confidence the more he plays.”
Faria to DL; Nuno added
The Rays announced righty starter Jake Faria was placed on the 10-day DL before Wednesday’s game. Faria, who does not have a timetable for his return, left his start on Tuesday with a strained left oblique muscle.
“He got it pretty good with the oblique so he’ll miss some time,” Cash said. “We were pretty confident that it was headed that way but we wanted to get him seen by the doctor.”
Tampa Bay selected the contract of veteran minor league lefty Vidal Nuno to replace Faria on the Rays staff. Nuno, 30, was 3-1 with a 3.57 ERA in 40 1/3 innings with Triple-A Durham.
“I’m excited he’s here,” Cash said of his latest addition. “He’s got plenty of experience and he’s done a lot of roles. He’s started, added length to the bullpen and he’s been a left-on-left specialist so we’re going to use him in different ways. He’s throwing the ball well and our thoughts are pretty high on him right now.”
To make room on the 40-man roster, the Rays moved righty Nate Eovaldi, still recovering from having loose matter removed from his throwing elbow, to the 60-day DL.
Cash on what the injury to Faria will mean to the @RaysBaseball rotation in the short term. #AllRomoAllTheTime @TheScrumSports pic.twitter.com/Mx3EPOJ3bb
— j. Scott Butherus (@JScottButherus) May 23, 2018
Up next
Tampa Bay will conclude its three-game set against the visiting Sox on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. Lefty Blake Snell (5-3, 3.07 ERA) will face off against Rick Porcello (6-1, 3.39) in the finale. Snell has been the Rays’ most consistent pitcher this season, allowing two or less runs in eight of his 10 starts. He has also pitched well against the AL East rival, allowing just two earned runs in 13 innings (1.38 ERA) in 2018.
