Siri 'playing with his hair on fire' in center field

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- For all the success he’s found at the plate over the past month, Jose Siri puts a lot of concentration and emphasis on his defense in center field. And when he takes his place in the outfield, he has a simple mentality.

“I want the ball to come to me,” Siri said last weekend through interpreter Manny Navarro. “Like, ‘Hit it here. Hit it here.’”

These days, with Siri putting on a nightly defensive clinic, the Rays can’t help but feel the same way.

“I think he's amazing [his] teammates right now with how consistent his play is, how good he is out in the outfield,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Just take it from the pitchers who can breathe a little easier when they give up a fly ball to center.

“Show play after Show play from him,” starter Ryan Pepiot said. “Nothing surprises me when he’s out there, but it’s awesome to have him out there.”

Or from Siri's fellow position players, who have had a front-row seat for his personal highlight reel of running catches, diving grabs, leaping snags and on-target throws.

“It looks like when that guy plays baseball, he can be one of the best center fielders,” first baseman Yandy Díaz said through Navarro. “As you can see, he's playing better and it's showing.”

Or from Tampa Bay’s coaches. They’ve worked with Siri before games to refine his pre-pitch preparation and improve his jumps, helping him set up almost more like a shortstop than a center fielder -- then they've watched him make some athletic plays that nobody could even hope to coach.

“He’s fun to watch, isn’t he? He’s certainly made some really low-percentage plays look easy,” first-base coach Michael Johns said. “He’s just taking over on defense, and he’s feeling it. He’s playing with his hair on fire. It’s really fun for all of us.”

Siri’s 6 outs above average are the second most among American League center fielders this season, trailing only Houston’s Jake Meyers (7 OAA). Siri has shown renewed focus after some occasionally sloppy mistakes earlier this season, like when he was benched in Chicago on April 27 for not hustling after a ball hit up the middle.

“He’s coming to the field with good energy every day, and it’s very impressive to do what he’s doing,” starter Aaron Civale said. “It rubs off on people in a very positive way. He’s the type of player that, like I said when I got here last year, he can be a spark plug.”

With Siri at the top of his game defensively, plus slick-fielding Taylor Walls back at shortstop and José Caballero free to move around the infield, Cash said the Rays’ once-underperforming defense is “playing kind of like it’s supposed to and like what we’ve seen for so many seasons.”

Just check the recent highlights.

There was the heads-up play Siri made on May 25, showing up out of nowhere to back up (and bail out) Harold Ramírez when he lost a fly ball at Tropicana Field. His finest moment might have come a few days later, when he leapt against the wall (and over Randy Arozarena) to rob Zack Gelof of a home run, only minutes before lacing a walk-off single to beat the A’s.

Siri put his wheels to work to take a hit away from Seiya Suzuki on June 11, reaching an elite sprint speed of 30.9 feet per second as he covered 80 feet in 4.3 seconds to complete the diving catch.

Siri came through in a much higher-leverage spot last Thursday, helping the Rays pull out a win in Minnesota. With nobody out in the 10th inning, Siri wandered well into right field to set up and unleash a perfect throw to third base, where Caballero tagged out automatic runner Royce Lewis.

“He put the throw right on the money,” Caballero said.

Siri said Friday afternoon that he heard about that throw “from all different places.” Then he went out and made two more worth talking about.

In the second inning of Friday’s series opener at PNC Park, Siri scrambled to cover 81 feet in 4.7 seconds, on a 104.5 mph line drive by Nick Gonzales, dashing and reaching to snare the ball before breaking into a celebratory dance in front of Tampa Bay’s bullpen.

“He's unbelievable. He has the ability to change a game in so many different ways,” reliever Colin Poche said. “He's just so talented, athletic -- and a pretty good dancer, too.”

Siri finished the Rays’ 10-3 win Friday night by jumping into the wall -- and working around a fan’s outstretched arms, which Pepiot described as pass interference -- to deny Jack Suwinski an extra-base hit. All in a day’s work.

“It’s been unbelievable, this kind of run he’s on,” Johns said. “The ability to know where the wall is, then the fan coming into play -- watching it in slow motion, I don’t know how he did it. I don’t know how you make that catch.”

“Kind of getting routine at this point,” added right fielder Josh Lowe.