'Outstanding' Fleming dazzles in front of family

When Josh Fleming made his Major League debut last August, he scaled the mound inside an empty Tropicana Field. His family and a small group of friends watched on TV across the street at Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill, unable to enjoy Fleming’s pitching in person until he made a relief appearance in the World Series.

But making his second start of the season on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, Fleming had his own personal cheering section in attendance -- or sections, perhaps, with friends and family scattered around the ballpark. The left-hander made sure his performance was worth the wait as he breezed through 5 1/3 scoreless innings on a cold and windy night in Kansas City, and Tampa Bay’s bullpen held on to extend the Rays’ winning streak to four games in a 4-1 victory over the Royals.

“Not the most comfortable elements to play a baseball game in, and you couldn't tell at all by Fleming,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “So happy for Josh. You could hear his cheering section pretty loud and clear, so that had to be a pretty special moment, exciting moment in his career.”

Born across the state in Bridgeton, Mo., and now residing in Columbia, Ill., Fleming had about 40 family members and friends in the seats Monday night. They witnessed a quintessentially Josh Fleming performance: He worked quickly, threw strikes, put the ball on the ground, let his defense go to work and gave the Rays a chance to win.

“He's nasty. That's the only way I describe him,” Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “He's just so efficient with his pitches. He's so smart, has a great pace, and he just does something up there to make hitters look off-balance or uncomfortable.”

The only downside of Fleming’s outing was that it didn’t last longer, although he did everything he could to pitch deep in the game. The lefty held the Royals to two hits (both by Carlos Santana) and hit one batter while striking out three. He induced nine groundouts and needed only 65 pitches to record 16 outs. He was, as Cash said afterward, “outstanding.”

“I think my changeup was the best it's felt in my time up here. Everything about it was on. Same with the sinker,” Fleming said. “And I know when those two pitches are working, I'm going to get a lot of weak contact, a lot of ground balls. And in this weather, it's very difficult to hit, so I was very happy with it.”

But with one out in the sixth and the Rays leading, 2-0, Cash pulled Fleming in favor of reliever Ryan Thompson after Fleming had worked his way through Kansas City’s lineup twice. Cash wanted to match up Thompson against the heavily right-handed top of the Royals’ lineup, a part Thompson played to perfection by retiring all five hitters he faced on 15 pitches, so Fleming handed over the ball and walked back to the dugout.

And it was on his way off the mound that, for the first time all night, Fleming heard all the people there specifically to see him.

“I didn't really hear them when I was throwing, but once I got taken out, I heard a very, very big cheer, yelling from all different directions,” Fleming said, smiling. “Yeah, it was just awesome. It was awesome.”

In nine regular-season outings for the Rays, Fleming has put together a 2.32 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. He’s found success since his debut in much of the same way he did Monday night, leaning on a sinker with so much movement that Cash said it sometimes looks like a breaking ball to go along with his changeup and cutter.

“His pitches, none of them are straight. They all move. He can just spot up anywhere he wants. He can hit that catcher's glove, and he just has that ability,” Kiermaier said. “And I love when he takes that mound every fifth day. He's fun to play behind. He just attacks hitters, and it keeps us in the game defensively. I'm a big Josh Fleming fan.”

Offensively, the Rays struggled to square up Royals starter Danny Duffy, who struck out eight in six innings. But the bottom of Tampa Bay’s lineup took full advantage of Kansas City’s misplays in the field.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Willy Adames hit a popup near first base that Santana seemed to lose in the wind. The ball landed on the infield dirt, and Joey Wendle hustled around to score from first after Santana flung the ball into left field while trying to throw out Adames at second. Adames then scored on Kiermaier's single to left, giving the Rays a 2-0 lead. Wendle scored on another error in the seventh, then Kiermaier’s second RBI single of the night plated Adames in the ninth.

“Little things like that go a long way for a team,” Kiermaier said. “With this weather, it's going to be low-scoring no matter what, for the most part. So you take what the defense gives you and you just try to take advantage of any extra opportunities, and we were able to do that.”