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Rays Starting Pitcher Was Hospitalized After Spider Bite Gave Him Knee Infection
Baseball players have been injured via bike accidents, trampoline tumbles, infected tattoos, dropping piano benches on their toes and now, spider bites. Tampa Bay Rays starter Ryan Pepiot went on the shelf after he was bit by a spider which led to a knee infection. He was hospitalized for nearly three days.
Pepiot spoke to media and said a bug bite, which was "likely" a spider caused his knee to swell up the size of a softball. He was under medical observation for 60 hours.
"I've had bug bites all the time, but never something that, like, swelled up to where I couldn't put any weight on my leg," Pepiot said to Ryan Bass.
Bass reports that Rays manager Kevin Cash said the team is still deliberating over his exact timeline and if a rehab start in the minors will come into play. He's throwing off the bullpen mound on Saturday afternoon.
Pepiot, who was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers that sent Tyler Glasnow westbound, is 2-1 in his last three appearances. His ERA is 3.92 this year in 17 starts.
JOSH WILSON
Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.