Cedric Mullins batting eighth against right-hander

There haven’t been any rumblings of any sort of injury, so it looks to be just a routine night off for the 31-year-old outfielder. Jonny DeLuca will start in his place in center field and will bat sixth for the Rays against Logan Gilbert and the Mariners on Friday evening at T-Mobile Park.

A bit of a cheap dinger, Mullins’ homer down the left field line would have gone out of only seven parks and it barely cleared a short porch in Tropicana Field. Mullins has been a rough fantasy proposition, as to get 13 homers and 16 stolen bases, fantasy managers have had to swallow a .202/.279/.356 line. He retains a little deep-league value based on how high he often hits in the order, but that’s about all.

Mullins strolled to the dish in the fifth inning with the game knotted in a scoreless tie and Chandler Simpson at third base with only one out. He dropped down a safety squeeze down the first base line that plated the run and turned into a single, giving Drew Rasmussen and company all of the run support that they would require. The 31-year-old outfielder is slashing .203/.282/.352 with 12 homers, 33 RBI and 16 stolen bases (in 23 attempts) through his first 354 plate appearances with the Rays.

Mullins singled off of Randy Dobnak in the third inning but the Rays couldn’t bring him home. He then got to him for a 385-foot (96.9-mph EV) two-out, two-run blast in the fifth inning that extended the Rays’ lead to 5-1. The 31-year-old outfielder has now homered in three straight games — and four of his last five. For the season, he’s slashing .217/.294/.361 with 10 homers, 29 RBI and 13 stolen bases (in 19 attempts).

Mullins has three homers in four games and six over the last month after hitting three through the end of May. Between his struggles hitting for average and his platoon status, he remains a tough play in mixed leagues. However, nine homers and 13 steals at the midpoint is pretty good.

Yandy Díaz is leading off for a seventh straight game. It’s the first time in six days that the Rays have faced a righty. Simpson was mostly leading off against righties before getting hurt last weekend and missing a few games. In three games versus lefties since, he hit third Tuesday, didn’t start Wednesday and batted seventh on Friday. As for Mullins, it’s his first time hitting in the top third of the order since May 2 and just the fourth time he’s done so this season. Mullins, who is batting in between Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero tonight, is hitting .200/.355/.560 with three homers in nine games this month.

Mullins’ fourth homer came on only his third barrel of the year. He’s hitting .186/.268/.288 with just a .209 BABIP. Incredibly, though, Statcast doesn’t think he’s been at all the victim of bad luck. Having one of the league’s lowest hard-hit rates and highest flyball rates is just a really bad combination.

Mullins put together his strongest all-around performance of an otherwise lackluster Rays debut, notching a season-high four hits, including his third round-tripper of the season. The 31-year-old center fielder also picked up his ninth stolen base of the season in this one. He’s been a complete non-factor fantasy-wise this year, but he’s putting up some impressive numbers recently, hitting .306 (11-for-36) with one homer and three steals in 11 games since the start of May.

Mullins is off to an ice-cold start to his Rays debut, hitting .147/.198/.280 with two homers and three steals through 20 games. It’s worth noting that Tampa Bay has top prospect Jacob Melton waiting in the wings down at Triple-A Durham, which means Mullins is going to have to start producing sooner or later.

Mullins drove in a run with a base hit in the fifth inning to give the Rays the lead. With the game extended into the 13th, he came through with a two-run homer to once again put the Rays ahead with what would end up being the game-winning runs. It was the 31-year-old outfielder’s best day at the plate so far. His home run gives him two on the year with eight RBI while slashing .149/.205/.284 across 75 plate appearances.