ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Jake Faria couldn’t think of a better way to finish what’s been a mostly frustrating spring for the young Tampa Bay Rays right-hander.
The 24-year-old pitcher no-hit the Detroit Tigers for six innings on Tuesday, exiting his final tuneup for the regular season confident his performance is trending in the right direction.
Faria, who entered the game with a 7.43 ERA over five appearances, will start Tampa Bay’s fifth game of the season – next Monday in New York against the Yankees.
A lineup of Tigers reserves and minor leaguers rallied to close out spring training with a 2-1 victory at Tropicana Field, however the Rays felt good about how Faria pitched after struggling much of this month.
Faria, who retired the first 13 batters he faced before hitting Christin Stewart with a pitch with one out in the fifth. He struck out five and walked one while throwing 82 pitches and facing just one man over the minimum for six innings.
Although he had already shown signs of progress in allowing one run and three hits over four innings of a victory over Minnesota on March 16, the right-hander felt it was critical to follow with a sharp outing against the Tigers.
”Just to go into the season with a good state of mind,” Faria said.
”Even if I’d been in the strike zone like I was and got hit around a little bit, I still think I would have been fine,” he added. ”That was the big problem earlier in the spring, not being in the zone. Now I’m just happy I’m in the zone and commanding everything.”
Faria made his major league debut last June and joined Jeremy Hellickson as the only Rays to win their first three career starts. He was 4-0 over six starts and eventually finished 5-4 with a 3.43 ERA over 16 appearances, including 14 starts.
After a rough outing against Boston in his first appearance this spring (three runs, four hits, one walk in 2/3 innings) and giving up five runs and seven hits in 1 2/3 innings against Minnesota on March 11, Faria progressively improved over his last three games.
”Everything’s starting to fall into place, and continuously I’m getting a little better and better every time out,” Faria said, adding he’s been helped by pitching coach Kyle Snyder.
”Once I got back to what I was doing last year,” the pitcher added, ”everything started falling into place.”
Detroit broke through with two runs off reliever Alex Colome in the seventh, with Stewart dirving in one with a single and Cam Gibson adding a RBI double.
Tigers starter Boyd Matthew, meanwhile, yielded a RBI single to Wilson Ramos in the first and allowed two hits, a pair of walks and struck out seven over five innings.
After the game, the Rays acquired infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder from the Cleveland Indians for $90,000.
The 27-year-old who’s appeared in 26 games for the Indians this spring after playing parts of the past three seasons with the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays.
In addition to playing left and right field, Refsnyder has experience at second base and first base. He has hit .233 with 14 doubles, two homers and 17 RBIs in the majors.
The Rays also said catcher Curt Casali and outfielders Johnny Field and Brandon Snyder have been reassigned to minor league camp.
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