Jacob Faria walked the first batter he faced, and Rays fans everywhere began to worry. Spring was hard on Faria, and he was chased early from his last outing. But the second-year pitcher gets a lot of the credit for keeping the Rays close in yet another one-run loss, and deserves very little of the blame.
After that leadoff walk, Faria pitched a gem, locating his fastball around the edges of the zone and working good sliders and splitters off it. His final line goes down as one earned run in five and a third innings, with only two hits, seven strikeouts, and one walk.