Every Spring Training, Rich Hill said, there’s a moment when he finds himself. Sometimes he has come into camp firing on all cylinders, ready to go, and it happens right away. Sometimes his delivery won’t click into place until his last outing.

After a rough Rays debut on March 5, it seemed like Hill found himself on Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Fla. The veteran left-hander worked three scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and a walk, and threw 23 of his 36 pitches for strikes in Tampa Bay’s 1-0 loss to Minnesota.

Manager Kevin Cash said the Rays only planned to have Hill throw two innings, but he got through the second inning so efficiently that they sent him back out for the third with 15 pitches left in the tank. He threw exactly 15 pitches as he allowed a single, then induced a grounder and two flyouts. It was an encouraging outing for Hill after a 28-pitch, three-hit, two-walk, four-run inning against the Red Sox in which he didn’t record an out.

“Just really the conviction behind every pitch, that was the biggest difference,” Hill said. “Getting on top of the ball, throwing the ball downhill, committing to the pitch and the task at hand right there. That was really it.”

Hill’s fastball sat at 88 mph, and he located his curveball down in the zone against the Twins. He rediscovered the feel and downhill plane he was looking for while taking the mound to face hitters twice between Spring Training starts. Hill said everything clicked into place during the second of those live batting practice sessions.

“Once you get into the games, it's a different feel, a different adrenaline. Whether it's a game here or a game on the backfield or it's the World Series, it's always going to be that same intensity for me,” Hill said. “So being able to find that consistency of the arm path and executing the ball on that plane is something that's huge for me.”

With nearly three weeks remaining before Opening Day, pitching three innings put Hill on track to throw five or six innings in a start before the end of Spring Training. The 41-year-old said he’d like to at least get to the five-inning/75-pitch mark, which would put him in line to throw six innings or 100 pitches during his first regular-season outing. Saturday’s start was a good step in that direction.

“For him to get three innings, it's really good,” Cash said. “Now we've kind of reset that a little bit, that delay, and he should be in line to get to that 'magic number' in Spring Training.”

Game notes
• Cash said the Rays are encouraged with their starting pitchers’ build-up and progression toward the regular season. Hill completed three innings. Michael Wacha worked into the fourth inning of an intrasquad game. Tyler Glasnow completed four dominant innings on Thursday. Chris Archer worked into the second inning in his first start on Friday. After pitching in a backfield game last time out, Ryan Yarbrough is scheduled to start against the Orioles on Tuesday.

• Veteran reliever Chaz Roe worked a perfect fourth inning. Roe recorded two weak groundouts and caught Willians Astudillo, who is difficult to strike out, looking at a fastball for a called third strike.

“Just being aggressive in the zone. Just trusting the sinker, trusting the fastball and then expanding with the slider when I need to,” Roe said. “I think that's going to be the key for me all year, is just being aggressive in the zone with the sinker.”

• Left-hander Cody Reed continued his impressive start to the spring, striking out Alex Kirilloff and Tzu-Wei Lin in a clean fifth inning. In three Grapefruit League outings, all against the Twins, Reed has retired all nine hitters he has faced with four strikeouts.

“He's had a really good three outings, so that's encouraging to see,” Cash said. “He looks totally healthy. He's landing the breaking ball in the zone.”

• The Rays struck out 13 times in eight innings and managed only two hits: a first-inning single by Randy Arozarena, who promptly stole second base, and a two-out single by catching prospect Blake Hunt in the eighth.

Backfield work
• Wacha, Brent Honeywell Jr. and lefty Kenny Rosenberg pitched in an intrasquad game on the back fields of Charlotte Sports Park on Saturday. Wacha, being stretched out to start, threw three innings, then faced a batter to simulate starting a fourth inning. Cash said the Rays have been impressed with Wacha’s fastball, cutter and changeup.

“He creates a lot of depth on the cutter and the changeup,” Cash said. “Asking [pitching coach Kyle Snyder] at different times, 'Which one was that?' I guess it doesn't matter if it's going underneath the barrel. Either one will work.”

• The emotional highlight of the day was Honeywell, coming back from four elbow surgeries since his last game appearance in 2017. The 25-year-old prospect threw 20 pitches in a live batting practice-type setup, his first time facing hitters this spring.

“I think everybody walked away very encouraged,” Cash said. “The fastball velocity was really good. The changeup, the breaking ball, everything he threw just was really crisp, really sharp. Just excited for him. I think most of our entire camp was out there watching.”

Up next
Pitching prospect Drew Strotman will start, and the Rays’ top three high-leverage relievers will also take the mound as they face the Braves on Sunday afternoon at CoolToday Park in North Port, Fla. Right-handers Diego Castillo, Pete Fairbanks and Nick Anderson are scheduled to appear after Strotman in the 1:05 p.m. ET game. Non-roster righty Yacksel Ríos rounds out Tampa Bay’s list of expected pitchers. The Rays' radio call will be available on WDAE 95.3 FM/620 AM and MLB.com