In The Office, the character Ryan Howard starts out as a temp, keeps rising until he becomes a big shot at corporate, but then watches his entire career fall apart and ends up back as a temp. That scenario doesn’t seem so realistic at all in the real world–but Cory Wade might be as good of an example as we’ll get.

Wade was in the major leagues with the Dodgers from 2008 to 2009, but then shoulder surgery derailed his career and he didn’t appear in the majors at all in 2010. Wade became a minor league free agent following the season and signed a minor league deal with the Rays, beginning the season with their Triple-A Durham affiliate for 2011. Wade pitched well with the Bulls, managing a 1.23 ERA, an 8.3 K/9, a 1.5 BB/9, and a 1.0 HR/9 in 21 appearances and 36.2 IP, but the Rays didn’t have a spot for him on their major league roster and Wade exercised his out clause. Then Wade signed with the Yankees and proceeded to have an unbelievable year, managing a 6-1 record, a 2.04 ERA, and a 30-8 strikeout in 40 appearances and 38.2 IP. Wade went from Rays castoff to one of they key pieces of the Yankees bullpen. But then it all fell apart.

With the Yankees in 2012, Wade managed just a 6.46 ERA in 39 appearances and 39 IP, posting an outstanding 38-8 strikeout to walk ratio but also allowed a scary 8 home runs. The Yankees designated him for assignment following the season, and the Blue Jays picked him up before designating him themselves. Wade wound up with the Chicago Cubs organization and put up a 16-7 strikeout to walk ratio but just a 7.88 ERA in his first 10 appearances and 16 IP, prompting his release. And now, here Wade is right back where he started, at Triple-A Durham for the Rays.

Wade’s struggles stem from the fact that he doesn’t throw very hard, hitting only the high-80′s, but doesn’t have great command of his fastball, making him very prone to home runs. Wade has a good changeup and solid curveball, giving him a nice relief repertoire, but the question is always about his fastball command–when it’s on, he can pitch extremely well, and when he misses his spots, he can get hit hard. At the very least, Wade is a 30 year old veteran reliever who has found big league success in the past and who the Rays have the option to go to if he pitches well and bullpen need arises.

Twice in the major leagues, with the Dodgers in 2008 and the Yankees in 2011, Wade has managed an ERA below 2.30 in 40 or more appearances, and while he may never be able to achieve that type of success for a sustained period again, he still has value as a middle relief type who can come up from Triple-A and give you some solid outings. The Rays are risking absolutely nothing to sign Wade, giving him just a minor league contract and requiring him only to fill a few innings while Gomes is out. And if the Rays are lucky, they may find themselves with a red-hot Wade on their hands once again and a decision about whether to bring him to the major leagues or let him go one more time.

Today Roberto Hernandez took the hill against Eric Stults and the San Diego Padres looking for a sweep of the 3 game series.  This is the Roberto Hernandez that Andrew Friedman and the Tampa Bay Rays expected when he was inked to a one year deal.  Today we saw a vintage Fausto Carmona like performance going six strong innings while giving up 2 earned runs on five hits while striking out four and walking two on 95 pitches.

The Rays drew first blood in the bottom of the second after Evan Longoria  walked and James Loney singled putting men on 1st & 2nd.  After a Sean Rodriguez pop out Yunel Escobar walked to load the bases for the light hitting Jose Molina.  Molina hit a deep sac fly to right field to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.  Sam Fuld ended the inning after being perhaps robbed by a great defensive play by first baseman Yonder Alonso.  Tampa Bay then threatened in the third but Stults worked out of a jam to hold the Rays at bay.

Hernandez really only got into trouble in the fourth and fifth innings.  In the fourth after a lead-off walk to Chase Headley and a single up the middle to Carlos Quentin, putting men at 1st & 2nd with no one out, Yonder Alonso lined an RBI single past the diving second baseman to tie the game at 1 apiece.  Hernandez was able to limit the damage on a broken bat come backer by Chris Denorfia, invoking a 1-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Hernandez had his second mistake of the game on a 1 out solo home run to second baseman Alexi Amarista, giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.  After working himself into a jam of men on 1st & 2nd with the shift on Escobar made a great play to stop Chase Headley’s hit and end the inning.

The bottom of the sixth is where the Rays struck again with a lead-off double by Evan Longoria.  James Loney then lifted a fly ball to right allowing Longoria to advance to third.  With one on and one out Sean Rodriguez tied the game with a bloop single to center.  Yunel Escobar then battled Padres pitcher Eric Stults, invoking a wild pitch, allowing Rodriguez to take second base.  Heads up baserunning by Rodriguez paid off as Escobar then crushed a ball to right field for an RBI double giving the Rays a 3-2 lead.  Stults then made it out of the inning and kept the Padres in the game.

The Rays bullpen took over from there as Jake McGee, Joel Peralta, and Fernando Rodney did a spectacular job closing out the 7th, 8th, and 9th, pitching as they should and giving the Rays the win.

This was a great come-from-behind win for the Rays and is encouraging coming off a walk-off win the night before.  The key to victory here was superb pitching coupled with timely hitting.  No one performance stood out today aside from the Roberto Hernandez quality start.  This was a complete team win.  James Loney also continued his hot streak going 2-4  with a solo homer in the eighth, his 3rd on the season.

Next up for the Rays is a 3 game series as the rival Boston Red Sox come to Tampa Bay starting Tuesday at 7:10 pm as John Lackey (1-3, 2.82 ERA) faces off against Matt Moore (6-0, 2.14 ERA).

The acquisition of Lueke from the Seattle Mariners for John Jaso looked like a unqualified disaster last season as Jaso had a huge season in Seattle while Lueke was terrible,, managing justa 5.59 ERA at Triple-A and an 18.90 ERA in 3 big league appearances. But even as he struggled, Lueke managed a great 3.01 FIP as he struck out 9.4 batters per 9 innings, walked just 2.3, and managed a 0.8 HR/9, and he didn’t lose anything off of his impressive repertoire, which featured a great mid-90′s fastball, another plus pitch in a splitter, and another solid pitch in his curveball. And this season, Lueke’s results finally got in line with his stuff as he was unhittable at Triple-A this time around, going 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA, a 13.7 K/9, a 2.4 BB/9, and a 0.5 HR/9 in 14 appearances and 19 innings pitched. Lueke was just too good to keep down, especially with Gomes struggling, managing just a 5.40 ERA in 14 big league appearances before getting hurt.

Lueke will settle into a low-leverage middle relief role for now, but he has the stuff to pitch his way into a bigger role if he succeeds. Lueke has always featured electric stuff, but so far in 2013, he has done an excellent job not just throwing strikes but locating his pitches down in the zone, and Triple-A hitters have been overwhelmed. It also should help Lueke to pitch alongside Joel Peralta, the Rays’ resident splitter master, who could help him make the necessary improvements with his key secondary pitch to help him translate his Triple-A success to the major leagues. Worst-case scenario, Lueke is as bad as Gomes was, but he features better stuff than Gomes and sky-high confidence right now, giving him a chance to become a big part of this Rays bullpen by season’s end. The Rays bullpen had a breakthrough game on Thursday as Fernando Rodney and Kyle Farnsworth looked as good as they have all season. Hopefully Lueke can be part of the relief corps’ continued turnaround and help stop the lost leads and seal Rays win after Rays win.