Diamondbacks’ Robbie Ray shows variety in impressive outing vs. Royals

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s possible that Robbie Ray already has a spot in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ rotation, even if manager Torey Lovullo has not announced it.

After all, heading into Tuesday’s outing against the Royals, the left-hander had an ERA of just 2.31 in Cactus League play, allowing three earned runs in 11.2 innings while striking out 12 and walking four.

But if Ray had not already done enough to earn one of the four spots behind ace Zack Greinke, his most recent effort likely did nothing to hurt his cause.

Ray surrendered two runs — both on solo home runs — in five innings. He allowed a total of four hits and one walk while striking out six in Arizona’s 4-2 win.

“I felt really good,” Ray said. “I felt like all my pitches were working for me; fastball command was great and I had a good mix going today. So I felt really good.”

Ray said the home runs, hit by Peter O’Brien in the second inning and Jorge Soler in the fifth inning, did not bother him so much. Both came on the first pitch of the at-bats, and he said the curve O’Brien hit was a good pitch and Soler cheated a bit to get ahold of the fastball.

“You’re going to have guys doing that, so I’m not really worried about those,” he said.

Lovullo, who earlier in the day said he wanted to have his rotation settled with a few days left in spring training so that everyone can settle into their roles, was pleased with Ray’s performance against the Royals.

“I thought it was a pretty impressive outing for Robbie,” he said. “I know he had one small little hiccup there for one inning, but he let us play some downhill baseball and he was aggressive in the zone. He was throwing a three-pitch mix and just seemed to be in command throughout the entire outing.”

For Ray, this outing, as well as his entire spring, have been signs of his continued growth on the mound. A hard thrower, he has struck out 356 batters in 330.2 innings as a big leaguer, with him fanning 218 last season in just 174.1 innings.

But Ray had an ERA of 4.90 in 2016, often times struggling to go deep into starts.

His goal was to expand his repertoire to include an ability to get outs sooner in counts. That means having more than an electric fastball.

“Landing off-speed in the zone,” he said of what he’s been working on. “Which I feel like I did a really good job of today. Making strides, so it’s going good.”

Not needing to rely on the strikeout leads to fewer pitches as well as more double-play balls. The ability throw the ball by hitters is still there, of course, but for Ray, his evolution as a pitcher will come when he has it all going for him.

“First pitch, I think it was 98 MPH, next pitch was a breaking ball that broke off the table,” Lovullo said of what he saw from Ray. “It’s about developing a feel early in the game and continuing to use those pitches and pitching.”

The skipper said they are looking for Ray to get earlier outs and limit his pitch count.

“He’s got three, four quality pitches that he can use at any time, and once he gets into a really good sequence with the catcher and gets in a rhythm with how he’s using those pitches, it can be pretty impressive.”

BASE HITS

— Did you hear what Peter O’Brien did? The former Diamondbacks prospect who was picked up by the Royals after being designated for assignment by Arizona last December crushed a home run to deep left-center in the second inning. It was O’Brien’s seventh home run of the spring.

— Not to be outdone, D-backs catcher Chris Herrmann answered O’Brien’s homer with a blast of his own to right field in the bottom of the second inning.

“It was a quality swing,” Lovullo said. “It’s nice when our guys are having productive at-bats, especially when we fall behind and kind of answer the bell. So it was nice, it was a nice approach, it was a nice backspin ball and that’s what I’ll focus on.”

– Fernando Rodney followed Ray on Tuesday, striking out two in an inning of work in his return from the World Baseball Classic.

“It was great, it was great — pretty over-powing for me,” Lovullo said. “Right in the heart of the lineup they sent over here today, and just handled it very, very easily.”

Lovullo said veteran pitchers like Rodney know what they need to do in order to get ready for the season, and any worries over his lack of usage in the WBC is a non-issue.

“Good. That means he’s a little bit fresher for us,” he said. “That’s how I’m looking at it, because this was an impressive outing and we’re going to enjoy him.”

— Center fielder A.J. Pollock is making his way back from a groin injury, having now run the bases and taken at-bats without the running. The next step was for him to combine the two as if he was in a real game. That was coming Tuesday, and Lovullo had received a brief report right after the spring training game wrapped up.

“It was a couple of groundballs and I think a strikeout,” he said of Pollock’s three at-bats. “But not so concerned about the results; it’s more about the health and how he came out of it, and he hit all his checkpoints so we’re excited about that.

“So we get a day off tomorrow, see how he feels throughout the day tomorrow, and try to get him in a game within the next couple of days.”

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