Blister shouldn’t keep Robbie Ray from next Diamondbacks start
Jun 27, 2016, 11:40 PM
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Arizona Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray doesn’t expect to miss his next start despite leaving Monday night’s 8-0 loss to the Phillies after a blister formed on his left middle finger.
Ray told reporters the finger on his left hand flared on his final pitch, a fastball that led to an RBI-double by Philadelphia’s Cody Asche. The hit gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead, and Ray was pulled in favor of reliever Jake Barrett.
“I called the coaches out to the mound and took a look at it and we just decided, going further, we’d worry about health than getting that inning,” Ray said. “It was that last pitch, I just felt it heat up a little bit and I looked down and it’s just a small blister. It’s just precautionary.”
Ray’s night closed after six-plus innings. He struck out seven but was tagged with four earned runs, nine hits allowed and no walks. The lefty also got out of two jams in the first and third innings, stranding three runners in scoring position.
Philadelphia hit eight groundouts and one flyout against Ray.
“I think I made good pitches and they just hit them,” Ray said. “I was still getting ground balls and weak contact.
“I think there was only one pitch they hit hard,” he added, referencing the Asche RBI-double.
After Ray was pulled, Barrett allowed four more runs in a six-run seventh by the Phillies.
With Thursday off following the D-backs’ three-game series against Philadelphia, Ray will have an extra day of rest before his next expected start on Sunday against the San Francisco Giants.
Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said he liked Ray’s performance the first two times around the Phillies’ order.
“I don’t know about third time around,” Hale said. “Those guys, they’ve been swinging the bat a lot better. They squared a couple balls up and a couple balls fell.”
The game appeared within reach at the time of Ray’s departure, but the poor relief effort compacted by Arizona only having three at-bats and no hits with runners in scoring position doomed them.
“We didn’t play very well,” Hale added.