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TAMPA — The difference in pitching lines from Ryan Pepiot’s opening-day performance and Wednesday’s matinee was not extremely significant.
Friday, he worked six innings against the Rockies, allowing six hits, two runs (one earned) and one walk while striking out eight, throwing 85 pitches overall, 58 for strikes.
Wednesday, Pepiot worked five innings against the Pirates, allowing five hits, two runs and three walks while striking out three, throwing 88 pitches overall, 56 for strikes.
The results were opposite, however.
As was Pepiot’s perspective.
Friday, the Rays rallied to tie after Pepiot left the game and won on the Misner moment — the walkoff homer by rookie Kameron Misner.
Wednesday, they could never get even against Pirates ace Paul Skenes, or any of the three relievers who followed, and lost 4-2 to the Pirates.
Pepiot wanted to shoulder all the blame for what he did and how he did it. And gave himself no grace for having little margin in facing one of the best pitchers in the majors.
“ ‘Battling’ is a good word,” Pepiot said. “I didn’t do a very good job getting ahead of guys. I had to grind the entire five innings. They put some good swings on pitches when I had to get back in the counts. It’s not a good recipe for success to get behind pretty much everybody.”
Pepiot had a point, as he threw first-pitch balls to four of the five batters in the first inning, and 13 of 23 overall.
He worked with traffic on the bases in each of the first four innings, but allowed only one run, which scored at the end of a sequence sparked by centerfielder Jonny DeLuca coming up short on an attempted diving catch.
The other run came on a hefty homer by Oneil Cruz with one out in the fifth.
“Pep gave us every opportunity to keep us in the ballgame,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I did think he threw the ball well. A couple at-bats early in the game got deeper counts, drove the pitch count up a little bit. First-pitch strikes were a little elusive early on, but give him a lot of credit for settling in and limiting that team to not much.”
DeLuca, who was traded with Pepiot to the Rays from the Dodgers in December 2023, had a similar take.
“Pepiot battles every day,” DeLuca said. “I’m confident that he’s going to go out there and shove. I think we all have a lot of confidence in him. He threw the ball well.”
Skenes, the 22-year-old who made a dominant debut last season and ended up with the National League Rookie of the Year award and finished third in the Cy Young voting, made the assignment that much tougher.
He allowed only three hits.
One was a single with two outs in the first to red-hot rookie Jake Mangum, who Cy Young himself might have had trouble getting out.
Then a single with two outs in the third to Yandy Diaz, who last year in Pittsburgh hit Skenes’ first pitch of the game for a homer; the Rays came back and won that one against the bullpen.
And then a single leading off the sixth to DeLuca, which the Rays turned into an unearned run.
Skenes struck out six, though of note, for the first time in his 25 career starts none in the first two innings.
And he finished strong, striking out Jose Caballero with a 98-mph fastball on his 102nd and final pitch.
“He’s just super talented,” Cash said. “Special pitcher that’s got a lot of power, got a lot of feel to the pitch mix that he throws, and it feels like he can throw any pitch in any count.”
But the Rays hitters, even in defeat, weren’t ceding much to Skenes — who they have been getting asked about for days — over their guy.
“I’m not going to say anything bad. ... It’s just things that happens in baseball, but I feel really comfortable facing him,” said Jonathan Aranda, who flew out once and struck out twice, via team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez.
“Maybe his splinker (a combination splitter and sinker), that’s the pitch that I think we all battled the most (Wednesday). But the other pitches, they’re good, but we were able to see them and hit them, too.”
DeLuca noted Skenes did all the basic stuff well — had good stuff, threw strikes, mixed well.
“So, yeah, just another quality start from a quality pitcher,” DeLuca said. “Nothing more to say, really, other than that.”
Actually, there was.
“Skenes is an interesting one, because he had a lot of punchies (strikeouts) last year. But I think he’s also that pitch-ability wise, and getting ground balls and getting outs is part of his game, too. So I think he did that well (Wednesday). We were putting the ball in play a decent amount and just not getting too many hits.”
Pepiot said he can’t factor in who he is starting against into his process, or his evaluation.
“You just don’t think about that,” he said. “I start thinking about that where you have to be perfect and precise, and then you’re never going to have success. It doesn’t matter who we’re going up against, I choose our guys. I knew we were going to put together some good at-bats. Stuff didn’t fall our way today. It’s baseball.”
at Rangers, 8:05 Friday Streaming/radio: Apple+; 95.3-FM, 620-AM
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Friday, he worked six innings against the Rockies, allowing six hits, two runs (one earned) and one walk while striking out eight, throwing 85 pitches overall, 58 for strikes.
Wednesday, Pepiot worked five innings against the Pirates, allowing five hits, two runs and three walks while striking out three, throwing 88 pitches overall, 56 for strikes.
The results were opposite, however.
As was Pepiot’s perspective.
Friday, the Rays rallied to tie after Pepiot left the game and won on the Misner moment — the walkoff homer by rookie Kameron Misner.
Wednesday, they could never get even against Pirates ace Paul Skenes, or any of the three relievers who followed, and lost 4-2 to the Pirates.
Pepiot wanted to shoulder all the blame for what he did and how he did it. And gave himself no grace for having little margin in facing one of the best pitchers in the majors.
“ ‘Battling’ is a good word,” Pepiot said. “I didn’t do a very good job getting ahead of guys. I had to grind the entire five innings. They put some good swings on pitches when I had to get back in the counts. It’s not a good recipe for success to get behind pretty much everybody.”
Pepiot had a point, as he threw first-pitch balls to four of the five batters in the first inning, and 13 of 23 overall.
He worked with traffic on the bases in each of the first four innings, but allowed only one run, which scored at the end of a sequence sparked by centerfielder Jonny DeLuca coming up short on an attempted diving catch.
The other run came on a hefty homer by Oneil Cruz with one out in the fifth.
“Pep gave us every opportunity to keep us in the ballgame,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I did think he threw the ball well. A couple at-bats early in the game got deeper counts, drove the pitch count up a little bit. First-pitch strikes were a little elusive early on, but give him a lot of credit for settling in and limiting that team to not much.”
DeLuca, who was traded with Pepiot to the Rays from the Dodgers in December 2023, had a similar take.
“Pepiot battles every day,” DeLuca said. “I’m confident that he’s going to go out there and shove. I think we all have a lot of confidence in him. He threw the ball well.”
Skenes, the 22-year-old who made a dominant debut last season and ended up with the National League Rookie of the Year award and finished third in the Cy Young voting, made the assignment that much tougher.
He allowed only three hits.
One was a single with two outs in the first to red-hot rookie Jake Mangum, who Cy Young himself might have had trouble getting out.
Then a single with two outs in the third to Yandy Diaz, who last year in Pittsburgh hit Skenes’ first pitch of the game for a homer; the Rays came back and won that one against the bullpen.
And then a single leading off the sixth to DeLuca, which the Rays turned into an unearned run.
Skenes struck out six, though of note, for the first time in his 25 career starts none in the first two innings.
And he finished strong, striking out Jose Caballero with a 98-mph fastball on his 102nd and final pitch.
“He’s just super talented,” Cash said. “Special pitcher that’s got a lot of power, got a lot of feel to the pitch mix that he throws, and it feels like he can throw any pitch in any count.”
But the Rays hitters, even in defeat, weren’t ceding much to Skenes — who they have been getting asked about for days — over their guy.
“I’m not going to say anything bad. ... It’s just things that happens in baseball, but I feel really comfortable facing him,” said Jonathan Aranda, who flew out once and struck out twice, via team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez.
“Maybe his splinker (a combination splitter and sinker), that’s the pitch that I think we all battled the most (Wednesday). But the other pitches, they’re good, but we were able to see them and hit them, too.”
DeLuca noted Skenes did all the basic stuff well — had good stuff, threw strikes, mixed well.
“So, yeah, just another quality start from a quality pitcher,” DeLuca said. “Nothing more to say, really, other than that.”
Actually, there was.
“Skenes is an interesting one, because he had a lot of punchies (strikeouts) last year. But I think he’s also that pitch-ability wise, and getting ground balls and getting outs is part of his game, too. So I think he did that well (Wednesday). We were putting the ball in play a decent amount and just not getting too many hits.”
Pepiot said he can’t factor in who he is starting against into his process, or his evaluation.
“You just don’t think about that,” he said. “I start thinking about that where you have to be perfect and precise, and then you’re never going to have success. It doesn’t matter who we’re going up against, I choose our guys. I knew we were going to put together some good at-bats. Stuff didn’t fall our way today. It’s baseball.”
Up next
at Rangers, 8:05 Friday Streaming/radio: Apple+; 95.3-FM, 620-AM
• • •
Sign up for the Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.
Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on Instagram, X and Facebook.
Continue reading...
