For the vast majority of his outing, Jeremy Hellickson was dominant. He allowed a 2-run home run to Chase Headley in the first inning, but from the 1st all the way to the 7th, he retired 17 in a row, striking out 6 in the process. His fastball was mediocre, but his changeup was about as good as anyone had ever seen. Hellickson threw it a crazy 49 times out of 110 pitches, just as often as he threw his fastball, and threw it for strikes 38 out of 49 times and generated an unbelievable 18 swings-and-misses. But no pitcher is perfect, and sure enough, two changeups were errant and hit a long way: the pitch to Headley and the fatal pitch to Guzman. But even in that 7th inning, Hellickson’s collapse wasn’t him totally falling apart but instead really making just one terrible pitch.

Hellickson walked Carlos Quentin to begin the inning but then struck out Yonder Alonso. Mark Kotsay  didn’t hit the ball hard but was able to drop the ball in front of Kelly Johnson for a single. But then Hellickson struck out Jedd Gyorko and appeared to be out of the inning as he got Alexi Amarista to hit a soft groundball to third base. However, with the speedy Amarista busting it down the line, Longoria had to make a tough barehand play and was unable to do it, allowing Amarista to reach to load the bases with the pinch-hitter Guzman coming to the plate. But with the count 2-2, Hellickson hung his changeup to Guzman as he threw it for the sixth time in a row to him in the at-bat, and Guzman didn’t miss it, tying the game at 6 as he hit a grand slam down the left field line. Hellickson went 6.2 innings allowing 6 runs on 6 hits, striking out 8 while walking 1. It was a shame that on a night where he looked great nearly the entire time, he left in the most disheartening fashion. If there is a positive side to this, Hellickson enters his next outing knowing who close he came to an outstanding performance only to let it slip away, and hopefully that will motivate him to push just a little bit more next time around.

After Hellickson departed, Jamey Wright did his job, getting a groundball to second base, but Zobrist made a rare error before Wright inexplicably came apart, hitting the best batter before walking the next two to allow a run. Cesar Ramos had to come in to finally get the Rays out of the inning on a strikeout of Alonso. The Rays had done it again, thoroughly outplaying the Padres for 6 innings yet finding themselves trailing after a 7th inning of disastrous proportions. But the last out of the 7th emerged as a turning point as Ramos made sure the story ended differently in this game. Ramos tossed the final 2.1 innings in perfect fashion, striking out 3 in the process. Just a few days ago, Ramos had fallen out of favor with Joe Maddon after managing ugly numbers all season. But after others’ struggles gave Ramos a second chance, he has run with it, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings in his last two games. And for his efforts, he got the win when the Rays rallied in the 9th.

Kelly Johnson and the Rays came so close against Huston Street as Johnson got a sinker up on the outer part of the plate but got just under it as his flyball died on the track. Street then got ahead of Ben Zobrist 1-2, getting him to swing and miss on two changeups, and the Rays were down to their final strike. Two pitches later, Zobrist swung and it appeared for a moment that the game was over but catcher Nick Hundley was unable to hang onto Zobrist’s foul tip, giving the Rays a second wind and an opportunity they wouldn’t miss. Zobrist then was able to lay off of two more changeups for a walk, bringing Evan Longoria to the plate. And after Street fell behind Longoria 2-1, he hanged a slider over the outer part of the plate, and Street didn’t get so lucky this time around. Longoria delivered a walk-off 2-run home run to left-center as the Rays won the game 8-7.

It was the same unfortunate series of events that had caused the Rays to lose many a game this season, but this time, everything was different. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves as the game came apart around them, the Rays stopped the bleeding after the 7th inning in large part to Ramos’ huge performance. The Rays have lost so many times because they had one great inning on offense but got nothing the rest of the game. In this contest, they turned the tables on the Padres, letting them have that 7th but keeping them off the board in seven of the other eight innings to give themselves the chance to come back. You don’t really know whether you have fixed a problem until you’re placed in the same situation and prove that you won’t act the same way. One late rally to erase another blown lead doesn’t erase all the games the Rays have let slip away this season, but maybe they have finally found a way to move on. The Rays go for the sweep against the Padres at 1:40 PM on Sunday with Roberto Hernandez taking on Eric Stults.

Cobb went 5 innings allowing no runs on just 2 hits, striking out 6 while not walking a single batter. He lowered his spring ERA to 1.29, but most impressive are his 18 strikeouts against just 1 walk in 14 innings pitched. Cobb was toying with a cutter in his last outing but stayed with his sinker, split-change, and curveball in this one and was able to miss a ton of bats and command them all very well down in the zone, allowing just 1 flyball versus 8 groundballs on the day with even the two hits he allowed coming on the ground.  Cobb has been unbelievable thus far this spring, and it seems like Joe Maddon guaranteeing him the Rays’ 4th starter job has been huge for his confidence and has helped him get primed for a big season and potentially a big performance in his first full year in the major leagues in 2013.

Behind Cobb, Cesar Ramos made his return to Rays camp following an appearance for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic and struck out 1 in a perfect inning while Brandon Gomes followed in the 7th inning with more of the same. Ramos looked great, and after his breakthrough 2012, he looks ready to hold down the second lefty spot in the Rays bullpen behind Jake McGee. Gomes is going to have a tougher time making the roster with guys like Jamey Wright ahead of him right now, but his back is healthy and he was effective for the Rays in 2011, and he’s certainly a reliever who should be getting outs for the Rays at some point in 2013.

Dane De La Rosa took the loss in this game after a tough 8th, but to be fair, it was not entirely his fault. There were runners on first and third with 1 out after a line drive single and a bloop single when De La Rosa got Slade Heathcott to hit a groundball to shortstop. But rushing to try to double up the speedy Heathcott, the normally dependable Hak-Ju Lee booted the ball, allowing a run to score and moving runners to 2nd and 3rd. Bobby Wilson followed with a 2-run single for the Yankees and suddenly they were up 3-0. Rough outing for De La Rosa and disastrous night for Lee as he went just 0 for 3 in the game as well. Lee’s offense is what we know he needs to work on, and his frustration at getting overpowered by upper-level pitching is something he’s taking out into the field, which is not a good thing.

The Rays were able to get a run back in the bottom of the inning on a Mike Fontenot sac fly following a Shelley Duncan walk, an error, and a force out, but that was all the Rays offense could muster as they lost 3-1 in the game. Fontenot went 1 for 3 with his sac fly and Kelly Johnson, Sean Rodriguez, and Wil Myers also went 1 for 3, but the Rays offense was quiet all night.

Frustrating finish for the Rays in this one, but Cobb pitched great and Ramos and Gomes were solid behind him, and the Rays can certainly dwell on the positives when those three, especially Cobb, were just as good as they were. The Rays are off on Wednesday, although David Price will pitch in a minor league game to stay on track for Opening Day, and hopefully thei bats can get back to mashing like they were earlier in the spring when they return to action.

Alex Cobb made his Grapefruit League debut while taking the mound for the Rays, but it did not go as planned as he allowed a solo home run to the second batter of the game, Dustin Pedroia and a Mike Carp RBI double in the second inning. But he did finish strong, striking out 2 in his final inning of work, and he certainly deserves some slack in his first appearance of the spring. The Rays would have loved to see Cobb pitch better, but in this game, their offense was perfectly capable of compensated for Cobb’s rough start.

Boston’s starting pitcher, Alfredo Aceves, immediately got himself into trouble, walking Desmond Jennings and Matt Joyce with 1 out in the first inning, and Yunel Escobar made them pay, drilling a 2-run double. Then in the 4th, the Rays were back at it again versus Chris Hernandez, with a pair of players who will see time as Escobar’s double play partners in 2012, Ryan Roberts and Ben Zobrist, drilled a 2-run double and an RBI single respectively to make it 5-2 Rays.

While the bats provided the run support, the pitchers behind the Cobb really impressed. Jamey Wright, known as a sinkerballer and not a big strikeout guy, tossed a perfect inning with a pair of strikeouts before Cesar Ramos tossed 2 perfect frames, striking out 1 and getting 3 groundouts. Jake McGee rounded out the Rays’ MLB pitching contingent in the game with a hitless inning working around a walk.

The Rays added an insurance run in the 7th inning when Cole Figueroa doubled and later scored, and although lefty Neil Schenk allowed a run in the 8th, fellow left-hander Adam Liberatore struck out the side following a leadoff walk for the save in the game as the Rays won the game 6-3. Cobb did struggle, but the offense, led by the big 2-run doubles by Escobar and Roberts, followed up a 10-run explosion on Sunday with another strong offensive effort, and the bullpen behind Cobb pitched extremely well. Other notable performers included James Loney, who went 2 for 2 with a run scored, and Matt Joyce, who went 1 for 1 with a single, a walk, a run, and also an outfield assist when he nailed Shane Victorino with a perfect throw to third base. On the other end unfortunately, was Hak-Ju Lee, who struck out in both of his at-bats and also made 2 errors in the field, something especially surprising for him, but as we said with Cobb, it’s still early in the spring (heck, it’s February and not even spring yet!) and we know he’s a lot more talented than that.

Overall, the Rays got impressive results both at the plate and on the mound on their way to their third win in four spring games. The games may not mean too much right now, but watching the Rays play like this reminds you that it’s never too early to get excited about this team.