A straight steal of home in Spring Training? Only for this max-effort Ray

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A week ago, manager Kevin Cash confidently said the Rays were “going to win games” this season because of Jose Siri's incredible speed.

He wasn’t talking about Spring Training games.

But Siri provided a glimpse of what he can do on the bases, plus a snapshot of his all-out playing style, with a straight steal of home in the seventh inning of the Rays’ 4-2 win over the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field.

It was a remarkably low-stakes situation for the Rays’ starting center fielder to pull off such an electrifying play: late in Tampa Bay’s third-to-last Grapefruit League game against a Boston travel squad full of Minor League players. But the whole sequence of events was a perfect encapsulation of what Siri is all about.

With the Rays up by a run, Siri led off the inning with a walk against Red Sox right-hander Durbin Feltman. He stole second, his seventh steal of the spring, and advanced to third on a one-out wild pitch. He took a big lead, then took off toward home after Feltman came set.

As Siri slid head-first across the plate, Feltman’s throw was late and skipped by catcher Stephen Scott. Siri calmly sprang to his feet and marched into the dugout.

“It looked like he was pretty calm and he was moving pretty slow on the mound, so I had noticed that,” Siri said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “I'm the type of player that likes to always move on and advance to the next base, so that's what I was thinking.”

“I was wondering exactly what he was doing, but he kind of committed to it,” Cash added. “It was a pretty heads-up play on his part."

A pretty rare one, too. The Rays have only stolen home 14 times in franchise history, accounting for the regular season and postseason. Randy Arozarena was the most recent Tampa Bay player to do it, and let’s just say it happened on a slightly bigger stage: Game 1 of the 2021 American League Division Series against the Red Sox.

Siri stole 14 bases in 104 games last season, and he should have even more opportunities to wreak havoc on the basepaths this year. He’s shown a willingness to run over the last month, and his eight steals are tied for second-most in the Majors this spring.

There’s no doubt he has the ability to do it; last year, his average sprint speed (30.4 feet per second) was surpassed by only the D-backs’ Corbin Carroll. And the desire will certainly be there, as the 100 emoji tattoo on his left forearm represents his effort level: 100 percent, all the time.

Siri said he’s stolen home in the Dominican Republic and in Triple-A, but never in a Major League game. Not yet, anyway.