Drew

Rasmussen

The 30-year-old right-hander struck out two batters on the afternoon and didn’t allow a base on balls. He exited with a comfortable 7-1 advantage and in line for a victory, but the Rays’ bullpen surrendered eight runs in the home half of the sixth inning to blow it for him. Rasmussen got seven whiffs on 73 pitches on the day, registering a CSW of 23 percent. He’ll look to replicate this fine effort when he does battle against the Brewers in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

He topped out at 95.6 mph with the four-seam fastball and averaged about a two mile decline on each of his main pitches. The result were ugly: He allowed three homers and 11 hits while getting a whiff on just one of 14 swings against the fastball. The outing raised his spring training ERA to 4.91 and his WHIP to 1.50. Rasmussen is clearly still worth a pick later in drafts and it’s good to see him pitching into the sixth inning, there’s nothing downright terrible about this outing for his fantasy stock. But it was clearly a down day against a Phillies team starting most of their non-Team USA affiliated regulars.

Rasmussen also walked two but struck out four on the day. The 30-year-old threw plenty of strikes and got ahead in the count regularly, but he had just a 15 percent whiff rate and struggled to miss bats with any pitch other than this cutter. Still, Ramussen worked his way out of trouble regularly and has pitched well all spring. He could easily reach 170 or more innings this season and is still going far too late in fantasy drafts.

Rasmussen, the Rays’ Opening Day starter, is up to five scoreless innings to open the spring. He got one strikeout today and breezed through his outing while using just 36 pitches.

All three runs scored in the ninth, with the Rays winning on a Jonny DeLuca two-run single. Rasmussen’s velocity was down 1-2 mph today, but that’s OK for his first time out. He’s already been named the Rays’ Opening Day starter.

There was some doubt because Shane McClanahan (nerve issue) is expected to be healthy to start the season and had been an Opening Day starter in the past. Still, Rasmussen was the team’s best pitcher last year, registering a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 127/37 K/BB ratio in 150 innings. The 30-year-old has a 2.70 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 333/86 K/BB ratio in 389 2/3 career innings as a starter. He figures to be a potential top-30 starting pitcher in fantasy baseball this year.

This was obviously the plan going in. Rasmussen was supposed to be on a limit of about 150 innings this season as he returned the rotation, and the Rays pulled him at exactly the 150-inning mark today. Because of the way the Rays used him, Rasmussen’s fantasy impact was severely curtailed over the last three months — he pitched a total of 65 2/3 innings in his final 15 starts and won only three times — but his season line of 10-5 with a 2.76 ERA is exceptional. With a normal workload in store next year, he should be a top-40 SP in spring drafts.

Rasmussen allowed four hits, walked one and struck out two. The 30-year-old right-hander was lifted after three innings and 76 pitches. Rasmussen wasn’t efficient with his pitches and wouldn’t have lasted much longer in the game even without the Rays managing his end-of-season workload. He has a 2.80 ERA and 124/35 K/BB ratio in 147 2/3 innings this year. Rasmussen is lined up to face the Orioles on the road next week.

Rasmussen gave up only four hits, including a solo homer to rookie Moisés Ballesteros in addition to a two-run double to Dansby Swanson. He struck out five and handed out three free passes. The 30-year-old righty was lifted after just 80 pitches (50 strikes) as Tampa Bay continues to put a strict governor on his late-season workload. He’ll face the division-leading Blue Jays on Thursday his next time out.

Ramussen left the game with a 1-0 lead over throwing 82 pitches in five innings, but the Rays’ bullpen quickly gave the lead up in the sixth. Ramussen has been tremendous this season and is still worth using next week against the Cubs, but he’s unlikely to be pushed much deeper than 80 pitches in that one either.