TAMPA, FL — On the final Sunday of Spring Training, Ryan Pepiot got word that he would now be the Rays’ starting pitcher this coming Friday vs. the Colorado Rockies in the home opener. That honor belonged to Shane McLanahan until yesterday when, in his third inning of work in his final tune-up vs. the Red Sox, he took himself out of the game with irritation in his left arm triceps. Pepiot then had the opportunity today to use his final spring start as a tune-up in Tampa, on the very mound that he’ll pitch this Friday.
The Rays begin their most unusual season yet — using the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field as their temporary home — after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field last October. It’s still not known when and if Tampa Bay will return to “The Trop.”
Pepiot made quick work of the Yankee hitters with no hits, one walk and three strikeouts in 2 innings. He was kept to just 35 pitches.
Ryan Pepiot was named the Rays 2025 Opening Day starter this past Sunday – Image Credit: MLB
Clearly, Pepiot was sad about the injury to his close friend McClanahan. But, he added, “I’m glad I got to pitch out here one time before I had to make the first season start. I think it’s going to be exciting, you know, a smaller environment, not a whole lot of foul territory, so that everybody’s right up on top of you. But I think it’s going to be fun. It’ll be different.”
The Rays-Rockies is actually the last of Major Leagues 15 Opening Day games. The others are all scheduled for Thursday, March 27th. The Rays staff now has just four days to turn the Yankees’ Spring Training home into their home park, in an interesting act of cooperation between the two AL East rivals. Steinbrenner Field is the one baseball stadium in the Tampa Bay area that was most ready to host major league games, with better lighting and facilities, and a larger capacity than any other. Yankee signage throughout the ballpark and the players’ facilities will be switched to Rays.
George M. Steinbrenner Field – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
When New York returns for their first three-game series in mid-April, they will use the visitor’s clubhouse, with the Rays remaining in the larger, better equipped home side.
In Sunday’s game, a Rays homer by Junior Caminero, his fourth of the spring, made it 2-0 Tampa Bay in the first. Home runs by Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells in the fifth put the Yankees up 3-2, and that was answered by the Rays with a Jonathan Aranda RBI double in the sixth to tie it up at 3-3. It ended in a tie, as spring games often do. It was Tampa Bay’s fifth tie (12-12-5) and the fourth for New York (14-13-4).
Austin Wells, a finalist for the 2024 AL LatinoMVP Rookie of the Year award – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Max Fried started for the Yankees and pitched 5 & 1/3 innings, giving up the three runs on four hits. Relievers Yerry De Los Santos, Ian Hamilton, Wilking Rodriguez and Kervin Castro shut down Tampa Bay the rest of the way. The Bronx Bombers head over to Port St. Lucie to finish their spring schedule against the Mets, while the Rays wrap it up in Clearwater facing the Phillies.
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