ST. PETERSBURG -- Some pitchers work starts like they have somewhere to be. D-backs starter Taylor Clarke’s situation is pretty much the opposite: He was exactly where he wanted and prepared to fight to stay there.

The 25-year-old was activated prior to his first career start Tuesday, but he already had his first taste of the Majors a little more than a week ago.

April 20 was pretty special for Clarke, who earned a save with three scoreless innings in a win over the Cubs and also collected his first career hit. Still, the D-backs optioned their righty back to Triple-A the next day.

Was he disappointed?

“Not really,” Clarke said Monday. “It happens. It’s baseball. You just do what you can to come back up. …”

And when you do come back up? Clarke answered that question with his arm on Tuesday, controlling the Rays over six sharp innings during Arizona’s 6-3 loss at Tropicana Field.

“I'm definitely pleased with it,” Clarke said. “I was able to go out there and compete, and attack the hitters the way I wanted to.”

• Box score

Clarke’s first pitch of the game, to Brandon Lowe, wound up a projected 405 feet away from home plate and over the center-field wall to put Tampa Bay ahead, 1-0. OK, not quite the beginning he’d envisioned.

What quickly became evident, though, was how the young right-hander handled himself afterward. Clarke rebounded from the initial slip to work a 12-pitch first, the opening salvo marking the lone Rays hit in the frame. From there, he made sure to keep Tampa Bay down -- literally, inducing 11 groundouts against three flyouts during his six innings.

“Great stuff, good composure out there,” Arizona catcher Carson Kelly said. “Guys were on the bases, and he didn’t panic or anything. There were a lot of good things coming from Clarke today.”

Clarke allowed one run the rest of the way, on a double-play groundout in the fourth inning. His final line read nothing flashy but everything effective: 6IP 7H, 2ER, 2K, 0BB, HR. He threw 90 pitches, 61 for strikes.

“Taylor did a great job. He followed a great game plan,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “He gets clipped for a first-pitch home run, it’s not exactly the way you want things to happen, but it did not faze him, as I felt it would.

“He executed the game plan; he kept us in the game. You give up two runs over six innings, give your team a chance to win, you’re doing all you can.”

Clarke was also helped along in the second by a leaping catch from outfielder Adam Jones, who crashed into the right-field wall to rob Daniel Robertson of at least a base hit. The outing was everything the D-backs were looking for out of the 10th-best prospect in the organization, according to MLB Pipeline, entering 2019.

Unfortunately, Arizona’s offense was all but absent for a second consecutive night. The D-backs got on the board with a Nick Ahmed double that scored Adam Jones in the fourth inning but offered nothing more in Clarke’s defense.

A number of factors will contribute to how long Clarke remains in the rotation, or with the D-backs. Catcher Alex Avila is due to return shortly, and Arizona will need to make room on the roster for him. Having already shortened their bench to four Monday night to make room for Clarke, it’s unlikely -- although not impossible -- the D-backs would send out another position player.

Also to be considered is Zack Godley, who slid to the bullpen after struggling through six starts. Godley’s shift made room for Clarke, but the former’s relief role is anything but permanent.

Clarke is more aware than most of all the intangibles surrounding the length of his most recent promotion. His precarious hold on the Majors, Lovullo said, will be taken “five days by five days.”

With so much out of his hands, Clarke is just fine with concentrating on doing what he can to make the D-backs’ decision as difficult as possible when the time comes.

A lifetime of hard work and a few breaks Clarke’s way earned him Monday’s start, and that’s also exactly what will end up keeping him around in the end. For now, he doesn’t mind not knowing what the future holds.

After all, he has nowhere better to be.