Notes: Meadows turns on one; Boldt shines

Batting with two outs and a man on second in the third inning Wednesday afternoon, Austin Meadows got ahead in the count against Pirates starter Mitch Keller, fouled off a low slider and stood waiting in the batter’s box. When Keller fired a 96-mph fastball inside, Meadows turned on the pitch and whipped it over the boardwalk beyond the right-field fence at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

The Rays saw a lot of that in 2019, when Meadows hit 33 home runs and made the American League All-Star team. They didn’t see as much of it last year, when he battled through COVID-19 and a strained left oblique. They’re hoping to see more of it this season.

Meadows’ home run (108.8 mph exit velocity, projected distance of 396 feet) during the Rays’ 10-9 win over the Pirates was his fourth of the spring, and it was yet another indication that he’s healthy and ready to rebound after a forgettable season.

“The timing is the biggest thing. My timing feels really good, and I feel like I'm on the fastball like I showed today,” Meadows said. “Being able to turn on something inside like that and being able to get to that -- I think it was 96-97, so that's always a good sign. Just keep it rolling.”

Meadows said he might have had a little extra adrenaline flowing as he faced his former team. Much has changed for Pittsburgh since Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and pitching prospect Shane Baz left in the July 2018 trade for Chris Archer, who is back with the Rays. But he still has friends on the Pirates’ roster and coaching staff, and he caught up with them before the game.

“It’s always nice to be back,” he said.

This season, it’s more important that Meadows is back to hitting the way he did in 2019. It’ll be hard to discern much from his Spring Training statistics, as Meadows said he’s mostly focused on seeing pitches and working counts rather than jumping on pitches early in at-bats. But when he keeps pulling inside fastballs the way he did Wednesday -- the same way he did in '19 -- the Rays can’t help but be encouraged.

“We didn't see him able to get to some of those pitches last year when he came back, and we know it's in there, knew it was in there,” manager Kevin Cash said. “I just think you chalk it up to a pretty rough [2020] season with injuries and COVID and all of that stuff. But [we're] happy where he's at.”

Game notes
• Meadows wasn’t the only Tampa Bay hitter to hit one out on a windy day at LECOM Park, as Minor Leaguers Ryan Boldt (4-for-5, three RBIs) and Miles Mastrobuoni (second spring homer) also went deep. The Rays finished with 18 hits, led by multihit efforts from Boldt, Joey Wendle (3-for-3), Mike Brosseau, Meadows and Mastrobuoni.

• It wound up being quite a nice day for Boldt, who dropped an Adam Frazier fly ball in center field that was ruled a triple and led to a run in the first inning. He homered in the second, hit an RBI double to right in the third and added an RBI single in the fifth, finishing a triple shy of the Spring Training cycle. The 26-year-old, a second-round pick in the 2016 Draft, is due for some good fortune after being limited to 62 games before a season-ending foot fracture in 2018, sitting out all of ’19 due to a right elbow strain and not being part of the Rays’ player pool last season.

“Our player development guys are really excited about him,” Cash said. “He’s kind of been snakebit by the injuries. It's nice to see him healthy. And with the consistency of playing time, I think we're seeing that he's a pretty good player. He can do a lot of things to help you win, and we've seen that.”

• Nick Anderson gave up three hits, including Colin Moran's home run and Gregory Polanco's double, after taking over for Tyler Glasnow in the fifth inning. After three impressive outings to start the spring, non-roster righty Chris Ellis allowed three runs on four hits in the sixth. Non-roster reliever Stetson Allie worked another scoreless inning in the seventh, and Chris Mazza allowed one run on four hits but struck out two as he pitched the final two innings.

Around the horn
• The Rays staged a six-inning intrasquad game back at their Spring Training complex in Port Charlotte. Right-hander Collin McHugh worked three full innings and was “very sharp, had all his pitches going,” Cash said. Right-handers Brent Honeywell Jr. and Trevor Richards and lefty Dietrich Enns also pitched in the game and threw well, according to Cash. Randy Arozarena and Tristan Gray homered.

• MLB No. 1 prospect Wander Franco, who was reassigned to Minor League camp on Monday, started Wednesday’s game at shortstop and went 1-for-5 with a 104.1-mph RBI single that hit the mound. Non-roster players who were reassigned can continue to play in Grapefruit League games this month.

• Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier is expected to play on Friday after sitting out three days with a tight quad muscle, Cash said.

• Brosseau exited Tuesday’s game early after being hit in the upper back by a pitch, but he returned to the lineup on Wednesday as the starting first baseman and went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the first inning.

Up next
After enjoying their second Spring Training off-day on Thursday, the Rays will return to the field on Friday with less than two weeks remaining before Opening Day. Archer is scheduled to make his second Grapefruit League start against the Red Sox at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Fla. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. ET.  Boston's broadcasts will air on NESN (TV) and WEEI (radio), and the telecast will air on a delay on MLB Network.