TAMPA -- After throwing 117 pitches over nine innings in the Rays’ first complete game in four years last Saturday in Houston, Zack Littell was curious how he’d feel leading up to his next start.
When everything seemed normal, he expected that to carry over into his return to the mound. And Littell looked very much like himself on Friday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Littell held the Marlins to just one run over six efficient innings in the Rays’ series-opening 4-3 win. The right-hander breezed through his 72-pitch outing while permitting only six hits and striking out four as the Rays won their fourth straight game and improved to 13-3 in their last 16.
On a sweltering day at Steinbrenner Field, and a rare afternoon start to avoid a conflict with Friday night’s Metallica concert across the street at Raymond James Stadium, Littell was perfectly content with not completing his second straight start.
“I would have loved nine,” he said, smiling, “but I’ll take six.”
Littell said the heat affected his outing more than anything related to his last start. The temperature at first pitch was 87 degrees, with a “feels like” temperature of 98.
Not a big fan of changing his uniform during an outing, Littell tried to walk the fine line between cooling off between innings without getting cold. But he felt no aftereffects from his first career complete game last time out and likely benefited from an extra day of rest between starts.
“Throughout the week, I felt really good. My body's moved the way I wanted it to,” Littell said. “With the heat … it's going to be an adjustment. We're going to figure out how to pitch and what the in-between-inning routine looks like a little bit better. I think there's some things I can do better. But overall, felt really good.”
The Rays have won each of Littell’s last eight starts after dropping each of his first five, tied for the fourth-longest team winning streak in a pitcher’s start in franchise history and the longest since Shane McClanahan’s eight-start run to begin the 2023 season. Littell has gone 6-0 with a 2.79 ERA and 1.01 WHIP during that stretch.
Littell’s ninth quality start -- tied with Ryan Pepiot for the team lead -- continued an outstanding stretch for Tampa Bay’s rotation, which has gone 10-2 with a 1.81 ERA during the club’s 13-3 run since May 20.
The lone run Littell allowed came on an Augustín Ramírez homer in the fourth inning. He pitched around two hits in the second but otherwise never faced more than four batters in an inning.
“He threw the ball really, really well,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Coming off a big outing, and [with] today's weather, the heat and everything, I know he wants to go a complete game, but I think he was OK coming out after six.”
The Rays gave Littell an early lead as Jonathan Aranda drove in a run in the first inning. They continued to play opportunistic baseball in the third inning, following an error by Miami first baseman Liam Hicks with a double by Junior Caminero and a pair of run-scoring groundouts.
“If that's all the opportunities present, just touch the baseball and see if good things can happen,” Cash said. “They did.”
They added what turned out to be a crucial run in the seventh when catcher Matt Thaiss drove in Aranda with a 100.3 mph single to center. It wound up being the winning run, as reliever Edwin Uceta gave up a two-run homer to Otto Lopez in the eighth, continuing a rough season.
“He's going through it right now, and we'll continue to work with him and he'll continue to work,” Cash said of Uceta, whose ERA climbed to 5.26. “But he's such a big part of our 'pen, and [we're] very confident that he will turn this thing around.”
Garrett Cleavinger and closer Pete Fairbanks finished the job, however, with Fairbanks picking up his 12th save in the ninth.
Overall, Rays pitchers have allowed three earned runs or fewer in a franchise-record 14 straight games, the longest single-season streak in the Majors since the Astros put together a 15-game run in 2022. And Tampa Bay’s staff has held opponents to four runs or fewer in a club-record 17 straight games, tied for the second-longest streak in the Majors since 2018.
“It seems like every start we get, we're in the ballgame. More times than not, they're leaving the ballgame with an opportunity to get the win,” Cash said. “They've been really good, and the bullpen -- for the most part -- has been pretty lockdown as well.”