Gameday Preview: Ryan Yarbrough Makes Debut For Rays; TV Info, Lineups, Pregame Chatter

Finally past a groin injury that sidelined him for the first month of the season, Tampa Bay left-hander Ryan Yarbrough will make his first start of the season Tuesday night. Here's now to watch, with TV info and lineups, plus the usual newsy notes.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Short on starting pitching since the first week of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays are thrilled to be welcoming back left-hander Ryan Yarbrough. After missing the first month of the season with a groin injury, he's going to make his 2022 debut on Tuesday night when the Rays take on the Oakland Athletics.

Yarbrough, a 30-year-old from Lakeland, Fla., is in his fifth year with the Rays. He made 21 starts a year ago and pitched in 30 games, posting a 9-7 record with a 5.11 earned run average. For his career, he's 37-23 — a .617 winning percentage — with a 4.30 ERA.

He's thrilled to be back. His short stint on the injured list lasted a lot longer than he had planned. It took two rehab starts in Durham to get him ready, and the second one was better than the first, when he struggled with control and walked four batters.

"I feel like I'm in a good spot right now,'' Yarbrough said. "Everything went well in the outing. I threw 59 pitches, with everything feeling good. I pitched two and two-thirds and if you're nit-picking a little bit, it would been nice to get a third out. But it was the pitch count that mattered, and I felt good the day after, and then had a good bullpen on Sunday.

"That bullpen outing helped me work through things. I'm 100 percent better control wise, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there. I'm full-go, with running and everything. It just look longer than I expected. I thought one or two (weeks), not three or four. I know the bullpen has been doing a lot, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there and helping the team out.''

Here's how to watch Tuesday's game, with gametime and TV information, the starting lineups, bios and, of course, our great daily dose of newsy nuggets. Back on Bally Sports Sun tonight.

How to watch Rays at Athletics

• Who: Tampa Bay Rays (13-10) at Oakland Athletics (10-13)
• When: 9:40 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 3
• Where: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, Calif.
• TV: Bally Sports Sun 
• Stream: Fubo.tv CLICK HERE
• Announcers: Dewayne Staats (play-by-play), Brian Anderson (color commentary) and Tricia Whitaker (in-game reporter).
• Radio: WDAE 95.3 FM; SiriusXM Channel 188 (A's broadcast; Rays online only)
• Announcers: Andy Freed and Dave Wills.
• Latest Line: Tampa Bay is favored at minus-125 on the money line according to the SISportsbook.com website opening line as of Tuesday afternoon. The A's are plus-105. The over/under is 6.5, the lowest number of the season for the second night in a row.

Athletics-Rays history

• Athletics vs. Rays all-time series history: Oakland holds a 116-82 edge in the series dating back to 1998. The Rays are just 35-62 in Oakland. Last year, Tampa Bay went 3-4. They split a series 2-2 in St. Petersburg from April 26-29, and the A's won two of three from May 7-9 in Oakland. This year, Oakland came to St. Petersburg in the second series of the season and took three of four games from the Rays. The only game the Rays won was a 9-8 slugfest, with Manuel Margot hitting the game-winning single in the 10th inning.

Athletics-Rays most recent games

• Rays 6, A's 1: Drew Rasmussen had his second consecutive strong outing for the Rays, giving up just one run and one hit in five innings and leading the Rays to a 6-1 win.  The bullpen was great too, with four pitchers allowing just one hit. The Rays had 11 hits and five different players drove in runs.

Projected starting pitchers

• Rays left-hander Ryan Yarbrough: As mentioned above, Ryan Yarbrough is making his 2022 debut on Tuesday night after missing the first month with a groin injury. He pitched 155 innings a year ago, most on the team. He has faced the A's three times in his career, all in relief. He has a 1-0 record with a 3.29 ERA.
• Athletics right-hander Paul Blackburn: Paul Blackburn has been terrific for Oakland. In four starts, he is 3-0 with a nifty 1.35 ERA. He's pitched five innings in each starts, and twice has held teams scoreless on three hits, including the Rays back on April 11 in St. Petersburg, when Oakland won 13-2. The 28-year-old is from Antioch, Calif. 

Projected lineups

• Rays lineup: Yandy Diaz 1B, Wander Franco SS, Randy Arozarena LF, Brandon Lowe 2B, Manuel Margot DH, Kevin Kiermaier CF, Taylor Walls 3B, Brett Phillips RF, Rene Pinto C, Ryan Yarbrough P.
• Athletics lineup: Chad Pinder LF, Spencer Neuse 2B, Jed Lowrie DH, Sean Murphy C, Steven Piscotty RF, Christian Bethancourt 1B, Kevin Smith 3B, Elvis Andrus SS, Christian Pache CF, Paul Blackburn P.

Newsy Nuggets

• Nugget No. 1: Making a roster move to make room for Yarbrough turned out to be an easy decision, because the Rays had to put relief pitcher Phoenix Sanders on the 15-day injured list Tuesday. He suffering from low back spasms, which cropped on while fielding a slow roller Monday night during his inning work. He's been good so far, allowing just two runs in 10 innings.
• Nugget No. 2: When Yarbrough throws his first pitch tonight, he will be the 24th different pitcher the Rays have used this season. That will tie the Arizona Diamondbacks for most in the majors. No American League has used more than 20 (Texas, Detroit, Minnesota). That number got inflated with each team being able to carry two extra pitchers the first month of the season because of he shortened spring training.
• Nuggets No. 3: The Rays played an error-free game Monday night and are 9-3 in errorless games so far, but are just 4-7 otherwise. The Rays have made 15 errors so far, including six in the last seven games.
• Nuggets No. 4: Rays oaches Stan Boroski, Paul Hoover, Matt Quatraro and Kyle Snyder are all still out with COVID-related issues. They are being replaced in the dugout by Dan DeMent, Rick Knapp and Brady North.