Rays' Zack Littell putting good finish on 1st year as full-time starter

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rays bosses had hopes but weren’t sure what to expect from converted reliever Zack Littell as he went into a season as a full-time starter for the first time in the big leagues.

Littell, who moved from the bullpen to the rotation out of necessity in the middle of last season, handled the transition quite well and put an a exclamation point on his success with a dazzling outing in Thursday’s 2-0 win over the Red Sox.

He worked seven strong innings, allowing one hit — a two-out single in the third by Nick Sogard — while striking out seven, walking none and throwing 51 of 75 pitches for strikes. In doing so, he extended his scoreless streak to 20 innings over three-plus starts.

Littell improved to 8-9 with a 3.56 ERA, increasing his team-high innings total to 151⅔ in making his team-most 28th start, missing only two weeks in late August due to shoulder fatigue.

He also tied Ryan Pepiot for the team lead with eight wins.

“We learned a lot from him when we kind of put him in that (starting) role last year,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Thursday’s game.

“I look at him very similar to Pepiot, the season he’s had. I don’t think we could have predicted the amount of success, the workload and just how much, day in and day out, or start in and start out, they’re giving us chances to win.”

The Rays improved to 75-78, moving to within five games of the American League No. 3 wild-card spot shared by the Twins and Tigers, though the Red Sox and Mariners also are ahead of them.

The Rays improved their chances to avoid their first losing record since 2017, though it will take at least six wins in their final nine games to do so.

The Rays took a 1-0 in the third when Jose Siri singled with one out, went to third on a single by Dylan Carlson and raced home to score on Brandon Lowe’s fly out to shallow-to-mid right.

They made it 2-0 in the seventh with some more small ball.

Taylor Walls led off with a single, stole second and then went to third on an errant throw by Sox catcher Danny Jansen. Walls scored on a bouncer over the mound by Carlson.

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