Rays stifled by former teammate and 'Fountain of Youth'

BOSTON -- The Rays had an awkward run-in with an old friend Saturday afternoon.

Red Sox left-hander Rich Hill, who spent the first half of last season with the Rays, completely throttled a Tampa Bay lineup that had scored 31 runs in its previous four games. Unable to get anything going offensively against Hill, the Rays were done in by a rough first inning for lefty Jeffrey Springs and lost to the Red Sox, 5-1, at Fenway Park.

It was the Rays’ second straight defeat on the heels of a six-game winning streak, resulting in a series loss after four consecutive series victories. They counted this one as a credit to the 42-year-old Hill, who struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings.

“He's the Fountain of Youth over there,” Springs said. “The guy knows how to pitch. He knows how to get outs. He's got really good stuff. Even at this age, he's good. … There's no telling how long he will play, because he's still got it.”

As the Rays often witnessed last year, Hill has a unique ability to disrupt hitters’ timing by changing his delivery and throwing from different angles, seemingly reinventing himself from start to start and even pitch to pitch. The crafty veteran kept Tampa Bay’s entirely right-handed lineup off balance on Saturday by pitching with urgency, rushing through innings like he had somewhere else to be.

“That’s one thing you want as a pitcher in that situation is a disruption of timing,” Hill said. “Just to stay in the moment, and whether time is called or whether it’s on us to speed up a little bit from the umpires, those are things that we’re capable of and in control of.”

His quick pace led to a lot of Rays hitters stepping out of the batter’s box during at-bats and taking some awkward swings when they stepped back in. Hill put together his longest outing and his highest strikeout total since May 25, 2021, when he struck out a career-high 13 batters over eight innings for Tampa Bay.

“That's the way he goes. That's the type of way he pitches,” outfielder Manuel Margot said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We were going off of his pace, not ours.”

The Rays managed a walk and three singles against Hill, only one of them hit out of the infield and none of them hit in the air. They avoided a shutout by scoring on three straight singles off Jeurys Familia in the eighth inning, but they were ultimately held to one run or less for the 19th time this season due to Hill’s outstanding outing.

“He can really get creative on the mound. Different delivery, it seems, every third pitch,” manager Kevin Cash said. “A little bit more cutter usage today, but we know he's going to go out there and compete. He competed really well. He had really good stuff today.”

So did Springs, although it didn’t look that way in the first inning. The Red Sox picked up where they left off Friday night by racking up four runs on five hits and a walk against Springs, who needed 32 pitches and faced nine batters to record his first three outs.

After that, though, Springs cruised. He threw only 54 pitches over his final five innings, while allowing only one more run on a Kiké Hernández homer in the fourth. He worked deep enough into the game to give the Rays’ bullpen a break, aside from left-hander Garrett Cleavinger, who was recalled from Triple-A on Saturday morning and struck out three over two perfect innings in his impressive Rays debut.

“He was a batter or two away from us having to get somebody up [in the bullpen] -- would not have been ideal,” Cash said. “Really applaud Springsy for the way he did settle down, limited damage and pitched really, really well.”

What changed for Springs? He credited the Red Sox for their approach, but suggested he may have been tipping his pitches due to a glitch in his delivery that he fixed after the first inning.

“I was just allowing them to know what's coming, probably a little bit too much in the stretch, to be honest,” Springs said. “Once I was able to correct that and keep them from knowing, sitting on certain pitches, I think I settled in pretty good the rest of the game. A good hitting team like that, when you allow them to know what's coming early on, they're going to make you pay.”