Tampa Bay Rays to start Jake Odorizzi Tuesday

The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox are set for a rivalry, AL East double-header on Tuesday, and the Rays will be starting top prospect Jake Odorizzi for the night game against the Sox, according to the Tampa Bay Times’s Mark Topkin. Odorizzi will be making his third start of the season, and hopefully for the Rays he pitches more like he did against the AL East’s Toronto Blue Jays than against the in-state Miami Marlins in his two starts this year. Although he allowed three runs in five innings against the Blue Jays, Odorizzi did strike out six and fared out a lot better than he did against the Marlins, as he gave up eight hits and six runs and lasted just four innings in that game.

Odorizzi will be called up by the Rays as the 26th man for Tuesday night’s start, and Topkin tweets that this is official. Fellow young arm Chris Archer will take the first game of the Red Sox doubleheader, while the Rays will give Jeremy Hellickson the ball for Wednesday’s start.

It looks like the Rays believe throwing back Odorizzi into the fire and giving him valuable game experience is the way to go, even if there is a chance he gets shelled by Boston. Odorizzi’s last appearance was out of the bullpen as an extra arm, but he ended up tossing 3 1/3 innings of long relief against the Kansas City Royals with four hits and two runs allowed. So far this season, the 23-year-old right-hander has a putrid 8.03 ERA but through just 12.1 innings.