'Happy for him': Springs rebounds with superb outing

SEATTLE -- The long road back for Jeffrey Springs wasn’t easy, and even the homestretch of his return from Tommy John surgery was never going to be bump-free. But coming off a hiccup last week in Oakland, the 31-year-old southpaw put down his best outing since coming back in a 3-2 win over the Mariners on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park.

“Happy for him, really pleased that he was able to bounce back from kind of fighting himself a little in Oakland,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It looked like he was in better rhythm, better sync.”

Springs went five innings for the fourth time this summer -- and the fourth in his past five games. He struck out a season-high nine batters and allowed just a pair of walks and a hit, on a chip shot by Randy Arozarena that left the former Rays outfielder’s bat at 63.5 mph.

That flip into right field was the softest contact Springs allowed all night, but the rest against him weren’t a whole lot harder. In 3 1/3 innings last Thursday, seven of the 13 balls the A’s put in play against Springs had exit velocities above 95 mph.

It was a setback of a start after back-to-back five-inning, one-run outings as Springs continued his ramp-up of a summer return. But in the four days after, he worked to make sure it would just be one blip.

“Just still trying to iron out things in my delivery, the inconsistencies that I’m not used to having,” he said. “Typically when I’m going pretty well, I have a good rhythm and understand my body and where I’m at in space, and there’s been some trial and error here the past few weeks as I get back to that.”

The Mariners managed just one -- a 104.1 mph Victor Robles liner that left fielder Josh Lowe only needed to move a couple of steps to catch. More often, though, the Mariners had a tough time just putting the ball in play against Springs. The southpaw racked up 16 swings-and-misses on a 42% whiff rate, his second-highest number of the season.

Springs’ changeup continued to be his go-to finishing pitch, accounting for five of his strikeouts and 10 of his whiffs.

“Before his injury, that’s the pitch that he could command as good as any pitch in his arsenal,” Cash said. “I know he’s still working toward that, but to get that swing-and-miss like he did today was really encouraging for us, and hopefully for him.”

But he got more mileage out of his slider, even against a Seattle lineup that didn’t send a single left-handed batter against him. Springs ended up throwing 25 sliders -- his most against righties this season -- and even though he only got two whiffs on it, he landed six for called strikes.

“[I’m] just trying to keep hitters off-balance,” Spring said. “Obviously, hitters are making adjustments, and if you just continue to live with the changeup down and away they’re going to start to ambush. For me, I have to move the ball all around. With my stuff, go up and in, down and away, up and away, down and in.

“It’s just constant moving, so the slider was able to help open up, have them see something running in to them to where they can’t fully sit on the changeup down and away.”

Springs finished his night by striking out five of his final seven batters. The Mariners didn’t put a runner past first base against him, with catcher Alex Jackson helping on a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play in the bottom of the third, getting Dylan Moore at second after Springs got Leo Rivas swinging for his 350th career strikeout.

And after Springs, the Tampa Bay bullpen continued the effort. Five relievers combined to strike out eight more to give the Rays a season-high 17 punchouts.

None came in a bigger moment than Kevin Kelly found himself in the eighth, coming in with two on and two outs after Cal Raleigh had just cut the lead to 3-2 -- with Arozarena coming up.

Kelly needed just three pitches to get through the challenge, freezing his old teammate on a 90.8 mph offering on the outside corner.

“Kevin’s nasty with the right-on-right from his angle,” Springs said. “He’s been doing that all year. We put him in tough spots time and time again, but he’s got a low heartbeat and he’s going to execute his pitches. … Credit to Kevin for winning that battle, because that was huge.”