Yarbrough back after working 'some kinks out'

BALTIMORE -- As expected, the Rays activated left-handed pitcher Ryan Yarbrough on Sunday for his second stint with the team. Yarbrough was added to the taxi squad Saturday in advance of the move.

Yarbrough was sent to Triple-A Durham on April 24 in the aftermath of a rough outing during a 10-2 loss to the Royals in which he allowed a career-high seven runs in 4 1/3 innings of relief. He made one start at Triple-A, giving up two runs in five innings while striking out seven on Monday, and Rays manager Kevin Cash hopes that appearance will get Yarbrough back on track.

“I felt the timing was probably good for him to get down there, be able to work some kinks out a little bit, get a start under his belt, get some in-between start work, which is valuable, and hopefully pick up where he left off from last year,” Cash said.

Yarbrough collected 16 victories last year to lead all MLB rookies, and his 14 relief wins were the most in that category by any relief pitcher since 1986. This season, Yarbrough is 2-1, but he sports an 8.10 ERA with slightly elevated numbers in WHIP and hits per nine innings, in addition to a WAR of -0.6 per Baseball-Reference, compared to 1.5 last year. For Cash, however, that’s all part of the learning process.

“Every young player has to make adjustments,” Cash said. “This could be a good thing for him, and we’re excited to have him back because he was so important and valuable to us last year.”

To make room for Yarbrough on the roster, the Rays optioned Casey Sadler to Triple-A. Sadler made his second appearance of the season for the Rays in Friday’s 7-0 win over the Orioles, throwing two scoreless innings, matching his previous outing on April 19.

Zunino, pitchers stay flexible
With the Rays making the last-minute decision to bump Ryne Stanek and place Yonny Chirinos on the hill before Saturday's 3-0 loss to Baltimore, it would seem as if the pregame work done between the pitchers and catchers went for naught. But Rays backstop Mike Zunino said he and the pitching staff are usually prepared for the unexpected.

“When you have a possibility for an opener, you sort of know how you’re going to attack guys,” Zunino said. “But with a guy like Yonny yesterday, there’s enough time there to go over stuff with everybody, and you just go get on the same page and continue to talk throughout the game.”

Even with the potential for a long rain delay ahead of Sunday’s series finale, Zunino said that he and the pitchers will leave things alone once they’ve finalized a game plan, preferring not to do any tinkering or video work if they're facing a wait. The game in Baltimore wound up being postponed.

“That stuff is ironed out beforehand,” he said. “We’ll go through as if everything is on time and hold tight until we get the time to play. There’s only so much you can go over.”

A bit of the unknown
The D-backs and Rays have a shared history, having both come into the league as expansion franchises in 1998. But their sporadic meetings and time zone differences mean neither team is very familiar with the other, so expect a bit of a feeling-out process when the clubs meet for a three-game series starting Monday.

“We don’t know them that well,” Cash said. “They’re playing really well. They’re getting some offense from guys -- [Ketel] Marte’s got nine home runs, Christian Walker is knocking the cover off the ball. It’s a hot team coming in, it will be a good challenge for us, but it will be nice for us to get home also.”

The Rays are 11-8 all time against Arizona, and this will be the first series at Tropicana Field between the teams since July 30-31, 2013.