There are several reasons for this: a stellar defense, MLB\u2019s best offense since mid-May, a home-heavy early schedule. But the most startling is that the team that pioneered the opener now leads the majors in starters\u2019 innings pitched. Brandon Lowe, the veteran second baseman, summed it up best last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur pitching staff is being very Rays pitching staff,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re fantastic for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Very Rays pitching staff, as an adjective, could mean almost anything, as long as it\u2019s successful. That\u2019s what\u2019s so fun about following the Rays, a team with a borrowed stadium<\/a>, an ownership in transition<\/a> and a relentless discipline to grab those precious few years of a pitcher\u2019s prime \u2013 and move on.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can see guys in other organizations that they think are undervalued, they make those trades to get them, and then from there, they help you develop into a better version of yourself,\u201d said starter Drew Rasmussen, who leads the rotation with a 2.61 ERA.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then, I would say every guy in here knows at the back end, when your time is done here, they\u2019ll probably flip you and get another couple arms. And they\u2019ll be talented arms, they\u2019ll help develop their skills and it just kind of continues to snowball from there.\u201d<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t a snowball\u2019s chance in Pinellas County that the Rays will pay for a pitcher\u2019s decline phase. It just never happens. Consider how they obtained Rasmussen and Ryan Pepiot, whose ERA is 3.11 after beating Baltimore with eight strong innings on Monday. Both pitchers can trace their acquisitions to No. 1 overall picks from the Devil Rays era.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trade trees here are wild,\u201d Lowe said, and here\u2019s how two of them look, in shorthand:<\/p>\n The Pepiot Tree<\/p>\n 2003: Delmon Young drafted first overall.<\/p>\n 2007: Young traded to Minnesota Twins for Matt Garza.<\/p>\n 2011: Garza traded to Chicago Cubs for Chris Archer.<\/p>\n 2018: Archer traded to Pittsburgh Pirates for Tyler Glasnow.<\/p>\n 2023: Glasnow traded to Los Angeles Dodgers for Pepiot.<\/p>\n The Rasmussen Tree<\/p>\n 2007: David Price drafted first overall.<\/p>\n 2015: Price traded to Detroit Tigers for Willy Adames.<\/p>\n 2021: Adames traded to Milwaukee Brewers for Rasmussen.<\/p>\n Several other useful players arrived in those deals, including starter Shane Baz, who was part of the Archer trade and is 6-3 with a 4.54 ERA for the Rays this season. But the Pepiot tree, in particular, is instructive for how durably fruitful it has been \u2014 especially the newest branch.<\/p>\n While Glasnow was a Game 1 World Series starter for the Rays, in 2020, he was often hurt and never topped 120 innings for Tampa Bay. His elite stuff attracted the Dodgers, who were willing to pay lavishly for it, despite the health risk.<\/p>\n Glasnow made the All-Star team last July, but was injured for the postseason and has been out since late April with shoulder trouble. Pepiot, meanwhile, made 26 starts last season (more than Glasnow ever has) and is now earning $774,600. Glasnow makes roughly 35 times more per season on his five-year, $136.5 million contract extension.<\/p>\n The genius of the Rays, though, is the way they go beyond such cold calculations to earn players\u2019 trust. In Pepiot\u2019s case, the bonds go both ways.<\/p>\n \u201cImmediately after the trade, I was talking to Snyder for a couple of hours, and when we talked, he was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to talk baseball with you for at least a couple weeks; I just want to get to know you as a person,\u2019\u201d said Pepiot, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. \u201cAnd then he\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m flying out to Arizona, we\u2019re going to meet up.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I\u2019m coming to Florida; I want to get with the staff.\u2019 So I went to the Trop in the beginning of January and worked out there for a month and a half before spring training even started.\u201d<\/p>\n That kind of commitment impressed Snyder, who has since helped Pepiot add a cutter and curveball to his fastball\/slider\/changeup mix. Now, Pepiot uses that assortment to induce early contact, a mantra for a rotation in which no starter averages a strikeout per inning.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s kind of been a product of knowing how good the defense is and letting them work behind us,\u201d Pepiot said. \u201cWe all sacrifice some strikeouts for a more efficient inning to be able to go longer and deeper in the ballgame. We all talk about the same thing. It\u2019s like, \u2018OK, we might punch out four or five, but it\u2019s fine because we went seven and we had efficient, 15-pitch-or-less innings.\u201d<\/p>\n Rays starters were averaging an MLB-low 15.3 pitches per inning through Wednesday. If they get ahead, 0-2 or 1-2, they\u2019ll try to induce the hitter to chase a third strike. Hitters, naturally, rarely let them get to that point.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the opposition is recognizing that we\u2019re going to throw strikes,\u201d manager Kevin Cash said, \u201cand more times than not, when you\u2019re throwing strikes with the type of stuff that our pitchers are featuring, you\u2019re going to get some outs.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rays\u2019 pitching staff had allowed a .262 batting average on balls in play through Wednesday, second best in the majors behind the Texas Rangers, at .259. Their starters \u2014 Pepiot, Rasmussen, Baz, Zack Littell and Taj Bradley \u2014 have good enough stuff, in Cash\u2019s view, to handle the first inning on their own.<\/p>\n The team known for openers hasn\u2019t used one all season, but Cash has not sworn off the strategy. He\u2019s just playing to the strengths of his roster.<\/p>\n \u201cI prefer whatever is going to give us the best chance to win games and do it consistently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This year, that means reliable efficiency from a bargain rotation in its prime.<\/p>\n How Angels pitcher Jos\u00e9 Soriano mastered the sinker<\/p>\n Here at Sliders, we\u2019re big fans of the high-quality start<\/a>: at least seven innings with no more than two earned runs. It\u2019s the best single-game measure of durability and dominance, and it helps to be efficient.<\/p>\n High-strikeout pitchers, then, don\u2019t often reach seven innings. But sinkerballers do, and the newest wizard of the sinker is Jos\u00e9 Soriano of the Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n After blanking the Yankees for seven innings on Monday, Soriano had five high-quality starts, more than nine teams \u2014 the A\u2019s, Blue Jays, Brewers, Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, Rays, Rockies and White Sox. Soriano throws his sinker more than any other qualified starter (51.1 percent of the time, according to Fangraphs), and throws it an average of 97 miles an hour, harder than every other starter except Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been working on it for a while now, and he\u2019s kind of getting the feel of it and mastering it,\u201d Angels<\/a> shortstop Zach Neto said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the way he throws it, man. It\u2019s from a weird angle, and it\u2019s not only me seeing it from out there, it\u2019s guys we play against, whenever they get on base, they\u2019re just saying the same thing: \u2018He\u2019s got it really moving today.\u2019 It\u2019s just a matter of how he can control it. When he throws in the zone, it doesn\u2019t really get hit.\u201d<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t get hit very far, anyway. Monday\u2019s start was Soriano\u2019s 10th in a row without allowing a home run, and opponents have gone deep just three times.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t try to do much with the pitch and I think that\u2019s a big key for the success that I\u2019ve been having with that pitch,\u201d Soriano said through an interpreter. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much like with every other pitch \u2014 when you\u2019re trying to do too much, it\u2019s either a ball or not the spot that you want.\u201d<\/p>\n Soriano, 26, grew up in the Dominican Republic idolizing Pedro Martinez and, as a teenager, Luis Severino. Like Severino, who is now with the A\u2019s, Soriano had Tommy John surgery in 2020. Unlike Severino, he had it again 16 months later.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very frustrated at that moment,\u201d Soriano said. \u201cI thought the world was coming down around me.\u201d<\/p>\n Soriano said his family helped him stay positive in his comeback, and one of his favorite pitchers helped, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was injured, I got to talk to (Severino) and he helped me a lot,\u201d Soriano said. \u201cHe gave me a lot of good advice and that helped me to keep my head up.\u201d<\/p>\n Soriano\u2019s second operation came while he was pitching in the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 farm system in 2021, after the team had taken him from the Angels in the Rule 5 draft. Needing a roster spot that November, the Pirates returned the injured righty to the Angels.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the season they told me, \u2018Hey, sorry, we\u2019re trying to keep you here, but we need space on the roster,\u2019\u201d Soriano said. \u201cAnd then that\u2019s what they told me and everyone knows the results now.\u201d<\/p>\n Soriano spent most of 2022 recovering and reached the majors as a reliever in 2023. He moved to the rotation last year and has a 3.44 ERA in 35 career starts.<\/p>\n His breakthrough came in 2023 when, then-bullpen coach Matt Wise and another staffer, changed his sinker grip. Soriano, who had been throwing across the two seams at their narrowest point, now uses a \u201cone-seam\u201d sinker that produces an extraordinary combination of velocity and depth.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Soriano shows off his sinker grip. (Tyler Kepner\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n \u201cThings going this fast just shouldn\u2019t drop that much,\u201d Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja, gushed in a recent post<\/a>, also noting Soriano\u2019s slider and knuckle-curve. \u201cAbsolutely unfair stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n With 86 1\/3 innings, Soriano is poised to easily surpass his professional high of 113 from last season, when he was shut down in August with arm fatigue. The Angels will be careful as this summer goes on.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to worry about it until we get past what he threw last year, and so far, he\u2019s breezing to that,\u201d Angels manager Ron Washington said. \u201cSo we might get 130, 140, 150 at the most out of him this year, and then next year we\u2019re going to want more. We ain\u2019t got to worry if he ever gets to 200 because they don\u2019t allow that. But he can get into the seventh inning almost every time out there. And if you take the ball 31 times into the seventh inning\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n That would be well more than 200 innings, unrealistic for a pitcher with two Tommy John surgeries. But as long as he\u2019s healthy, Soriano is commanding attention.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I have good moments, and other times I don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cI always try to stay humble and keep on working hard to get good results.\u201d<\/p>\n Off the GridBeiker Graterol: Detroit Tigers, Born outside the U.S.<\/p>\n Last June in this space, we featured Allan Travers<\/a> for a square that asked for a Tigers pitcher. Travers started one game for Detroit, in 1912, when the Tigers fielded a replacement team against the Philadelphia A\u2019s to protest a suspension of Ty Cobb. The 20-year-old Travers \u2014 a student at St. Joseph\u2019s University who became a priest \u2014 gave up 14 earned runs in eight innings for a 15.75 ERA.<\/p>\n It turns out that there\u2019s another starter in Tigers history who appeared in exactly one game with a 15.75 ERA: Beiker Graterol, a Venezuela native who fit a recent square for a foreign-born Detroit player.<\/p>\n Graterol drew a harrowing assignment for his only appearance. With other Tigers slowed by injuries, the team picked Graterol, 24, as a stopgap to face the defending champion New York Yankees in their 1999 home opener.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely looking down the rifle barrel,\u201d Tigers manager Larry Parrish told the Detroit Free Press, in a vividly candid assessment. \u201cWe\u2019re asking a lot of the kid.\u201d<\/p>\n They asked for too much. On a day best remembered for Yogi Berra\u2019s return to Yankee Stadium after a 14-year absence, the home team celebrated by pummeling Graterol in a 12-3 blowout<\/a>. Tino Martinez hit a solo homer, Scott Brosius a two-run shot and Chili Davis a grand slam.<\/p>\n Berra predicted the slam in the broadcast booth, chuckling with delight as Davis rounded the bases:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll do better next time,\u201d the poor pitcher said later, but there was no next time. Graterol soon returned to the minors and is linked with a strikebreaking priest forever.<\/p>\n Classic clipRain delay bullpen hijinks, 2018<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1462-scaled.jpeg\")
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