The roots of the legend of Jake Mangum, the Tampa Bay Rays’ early-season star, firmly were planted in right field at the spring training home of the New York Yankees on Monday night.
Following a career night, the 29-year-old rookie likely will be back in the lineup Tuesday night when the Rays host the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second contest of their three-game series.
In only his second career game, the switch-hitting Mangum went 4-for-4 with a double, two RBIs, a run and two stolen bases in Tampa Bay’s 6-1 victory on Monday.
“My high school guy was (Pirates infielder) Adam Frazier, watching him play at Mississippi State,” said Mangum, who followed in Frazier’s footsteps and headed to Starkville, where he set a Southeastern Conference record with 383 career hits. “To be able to take the field against him was awesome. Tonight was unbelievable.”
Right-hander Shane Baz’s journey has taken some difficult twists, but he finally appears to be fit and will make his first start of the season on Tuesday.
Baz had Tommy John surgery in September 2022 and missed all of the next season. The Houston-area native made 14 starts in 2024, turning heads with a high 90s fastball.
He finished 4-3 with a 3.06 ERA and held batters to a .200 batting average over 79 1/3 innings as they managed just 57 hits.
Sporting a deadly arsenal, Baz recorded 69 strikeouts while issuing 27 walks and hitting four batters on the way to a 1.06 WHIP.
“Ton of talent,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said when Baz was called up last summer. “When you miss two years, that is something. How much does it count for? I hope our expectations aren’t for him to go out and be in midseason form. … He might do that — he’s that talented.”
Baz has never faced the Pirates, who selected him No. 12 overall in 2017.
Pittsburgh became the first club to lose its first three games in walk-off fashion since the 1924 Pirates, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Andrew McCutchen said the small details prevented the club from leaving South Florida with a 4-0 record instead of 1-3.
“Lock it in and do the small things right,” McCutchen said. “I’ll continue to knock on that because if you don’t, this is the situation and this is what can happen. This is the outcome when you don’t do the small things right.”
On Monday, Pittsburgh struck out 10 times, did not record a walk and had only four hits against a combination of Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen and relievers Hunter Bigge, Mason Englert and Manny Rodriguez.
Down 5-0, Frazier had an RBI single in the eighth inning to score Endy Rodriguez and prevent a pending shutout.
Pittsburgh did not announce a starting pitcher for Tuesday’s game. The team’s bullpen already was taxed after the series in Miami — Saturday’s game went 12 innings — and Carmen Mlodzinski had a brief 3 2/3-inning start on Monday.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton did announce that right-hander Mitch Keller will get the home-opener start Friday against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
