“We’d rather him back one day sooner on the back side,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I think we have enough guys.”

Does the Rays’ decision really make sense? When you think about it, the answer is yes. Whichever player you’re calling up, are you really going to start him in those two games? Unless the Rays had made a shocking decision and called up Wil Myers, they were more than likely going to get a bench player, and the impact that a bench player can make in two games is probably less than what Zobrist can make in one. That made the Rays’ choice relatively easy. But Joe Maddon was upset that the Rays even had to make such a choice, not understanding the logic of the three-day minimum on the bereavement list.

Maddon questioned the minimum three-day stay on the bereavement list in that it punishes a team for the player not staying away longer.

“That makes no sense,” he said. “I think that thinking is actually reversed.”

As we discussed in our Rays minor league recap, the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls, tossed a no-hitter against the Pawtucket Red Sox, with Jake Odorizzi, acquired along with Wil Myers in the James Shields trade, tossing 7 no-hit innings to start it off. Odorizzi was amazed by how well the outing went and thankful to Rich Thompson for making a game-saving catch with 1 out in the 9th.

“Just kind of one of those days where everything goes your way,” Odorizzi said from the Providence, R.I., airport. Included was a ninth-inning catch at the wall by CF Rich Thompson. “That was that play you see in every no-hitter,” Odorizzi said.

I haven’t been as consistent as I want,” Hellickson said. “There was a three-game stretch there where I felt as good as I ever have, and then those last two games have been awful, pretty terrible.”

Hellickson said he knows what he is up against Monday.

“They have a lot of the same guys,” he said. “A lot of really good hitters. I know they’re not playing to their potential right now, but on any given day the offense can get started, and with the offense they have it could be any day, so I’m going to have to go out and be a little better.”

Triple-A International League: Durham Bulls 2, Pawtucket Red Sox 1

Who could possibly care about the no-hitter? Kirby Yates was in serious trouble, holding a 2-0 lead with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out after a pair of walks and a sacrifice bunt. The game was in serious jeopardy and what had been a magical night through and through was about to come crashing down. Then Brandon Snyder hit a flyball to deep left-center.

Rich Thompson went back to the track and made an over-the-shoulder catch for the out, allowing a run to score but putting the Bulls just 1 out away from victory. Lefty Beliveau came into the game to face Jeremy Hazelbaker, and Beliveau struck him out to end it, and the Bulls had done it, no-hitting the Red Sox in a 2-1 victory.

Jake Odorizzi started for the Bulls and quickly set the tone for his outing in the frist two inning, retiring all six batters in order but five of the six on balls in the air. Meanwhile, the Bulls took advantage of defensive miscues against knuckleballer Stephen Wright and Pawtucket, scoring on a two walks, a wild pitch, and a Brandon Snyder error all with two outs in the first inning before two singles, a swinging bunt, and a passed ball netted them a second run in the second inning. Odorizzi’s perfect game bid ended in the 3rd on a walk to Jeremy Hazelbaker, but he was caught stealing and Odorizzi retired the next two batters in order. Odorizzi retired 7 in a row from the 3rd to the 5th before Snyder drew a 2-out walk in the 5th, but Odorizzi got Hazelbaker to line out to end that frame. Then after a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, Odorizzi allowed two 1-out walks in the 7th, but got a strikeout of Ryan Dent and a Snyder flyout to escape the jam with the no-hitter intact. Odorizzi went 7 innings allowing no runs on, of course, no hits, striking out just 3 while walking 4. Odorizzi’s groundout to flyout ratio was just 3-8 and his groundout to airout ratio was only 3-14, but Odorizzi had his fastball and all of his other pitches moving superbly and hitters couldn’t hit anything with authority.  Odorizzi talked to MiLB.com about his outing after the game.

“The approach was the same as every game,” Odorizzi said. “I was just throwing the fastball and mixing in my other stuff, trying to keep guys off-balanced.

“That’s basically what we did today. I left some stuff up today, and the one or two times they hit balls decent, they were right at guys. It was one of those days when everything was going right.”

Odorizzi is certainly a pitcher capable of striking batters out–he entered the game with a 36-9 strikeout to walk ratio in 27 innings and his 39 strikeouts lead the International League–but it took an outing where his stuff was moving so well that not even he knew where it was going for him to no-hit the opposition. Just 55 of his 95 pitches were strikes, but he was certainly effectively wild on his way to a fabulous outing.

Frank De Los Santos replaced Odorizzi in the 8th but got into trouble, walking a couple batters to set up a 2nd and 3rd, 2 outs jam, but Yates came in to strike out Jonathan Diaz to end the frame. Then in the 9th, Yates walked a pair of hitters and let up Snyder’s sac fly with 2 outs, but Jeff Beliveau struck out Hazelbaker to end it as the Bulls won 2-1, no-hitting Pawtucket. Bulls pitching struck out just 6 while walking 8, but they overcame their wildness to deliver a marvelous game. The no-hitter was the first for Durham since Jason Hammel and Juan Salas combined on one on 7/16/06, the first time Pawtucket had been no-hit since all the way back in 1994 at the hands of Jose Lima, and the second that Odorizzi had been a part of, with the first being a dominant 10-strikeout, 8 inning effort at Low-A Wisconsin in the Brewers organization. The Bulls did also have somewhat offense in this one, with Wil Myers going 1 for 3 with a double and a walk and Mike Fontenot going 1 for 3 with 2 walks. It got scary at the end and the Bulls were lucky to score even a single run at the beginning before Pawtucket pitching shut them out the rest of the game–reliever Graham Godfrey has to get credit for tossing 5 shutout innings in relief of the starter Wright–but it somehow all came together. It was far from a perfect performance for the Bulls at McCoy Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but the Bulls were able to make it a special one nonetheless.

Sorry, but it’s all downhill from here. Rays minor league affiliates didn’t even win another game.

Double-A Southern League: Pensacola Blue Wahoos (CIN) 8, Montgomery Biscuits 2

Victor Mateo, who had tossed the last complete-game no-hitter in the Rays organization has seen on 7/16/11, got shelled in this one as the Biscuits lost 8-2. Mateo lasted just 3 innings allowing 7 runs on 8 hits, and the Biscuits bullpen’s effort of five 1-run innings went completely for nought as the Biscuits offense got next to nothing. Shawn O’Malley did have a great game, going 2 for 2 with a solo home run, a walk, a stolen base, and both runs scored. Mikie Mahtook drove him for the first time in the game with a single as part of a 1 for 3 day. C.J. Riefenhauser lowered his ERA on the season to just 0.46 as he worked around a hit and a walk to toss a scoreless 7th. He has struck out 17 while walking just 4 in 19.2 innings as he has been utterly unhittable, and if he pitches remotely as well as this for much longer, you have to think a promotion to Triple-A will be oncoming.

High-A Florida State League: Brevard County Manatees (MIL) 10, Charlotte Stone Crabs 2

What, does the no-hitter have to be canceled out by horrific pitching elsewhere in the organization? Roberto Gomez allowed 5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings before Eliazer Suero allowed 5 more runs on 7 hits in 2 innings as this game got out-of-hand in a hurry. Alejandro Segovia did get Charlotte on the board with a 2-run homer in the 7th, and there were a few other highlights for the Stone Crabs. Jeff Malm followed up a 2-homer day on Saturday with 2 hits and a stolen base on Sunday and Willie Argo played very well in his season debut, going 1 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base. Argo stole 17 bases to go along with a .289/.390/.396 line in 69 games between Rookie Princeton and Low-A Bowling Green last season. Some injury must have sidelined Argo up until now, but hopefully he can begin making up for lost time. The fact that the Rays are assigning him to Charlotte right off the bat has to be a good sign.

Low-A Bowling Green: Clinton LumberKings (SEA) 5, Bowling Green Hot Rods 2

Not even Taylor Guerrieri could save the Hot Rods in this one as the Hot Rods blew an early 1-0 lead allowing 2 runs in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th. Guerrieri started for Bowling Green and got hit around a little bit, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings, striking out 4 while walking none and managing a 7-0 groundout to flyout ratio. Jabari Henry homered off Guerrieri in the 5th, a 2-run shot, to end his outing on a downer. Then Jose Molina came in for the Hot Rods and allowed three two-out hits in the 6th to place three runs and puts the Hot Rods down 5-2. Molina allowed only an error in the last two innings, but by then it was too late. A major issue in the low minors is infield defense, and Hot Rods pitching actually forced 19 groundballs in this game, but only 13 were converted into outs, giving Clinton additional opportunities that they were able to take advantage of. Pretty amazing that the Hot Rods forced a 13-1 groundout to flyout ratio with 3 double plays and still got hit around as much as they did, but that can certainly happen at Low-A. Luke Maile went 2 for 4 with a run scored in the loss for Bowling Green while Marty Gantt went 1 for 4 with a stolen base and an RBI. Maile is 12 for 25 (.480) with 2 homers, a double, and 5 RBI in his last six games. Further bad news in this one, though, for Bowling Green was that Andrew Toles left this game after 8 innings. Hopefully he’s not injured.

1. David Price
2. Jeremy Hellickson
3. Matt Moore
4. Alex Cobb
5. Roberto Hernandez
6. Jeff Niemann (DL)
7. Chris Archer (AAA)
8. Jake Odorizzi (AAA)
9. Alex Colome (AAA)
10. Alex Torres (AAA)

The Rays’ big league rotation is really good (although Hernandez has not done much so far), but why do the Rays have four pitchers at Triple-A who could be the core of a rotation that might be better than that of several teams in the major leagues? Why did the Rays sign Hernandez when one of several pitchers could have stepped up to their rotation right at the start of the season? Archer is at Triple-A Durham to work on his command and changeup, but wouldn’t he be better served doing that in the major leagues? It’s not like the Rays would ask him to be anything more than a 5th starter as a rookie, and Archer could certainly be that right now after how well he pitched at the end of last season. The same can probably be said of Odorizzi. What are the Rays doing? Look no further than the plight of the Los Angeles Dodgers so far this season for the answer. Here was their starting pitching depth entering the season.

1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Zack Greinke
3. Hyun-jin Ryu
4. Josh Beckett
5. Chad Billingsley
6. Chris Capuan0
7. Aaron Harang
8. Ted Lilly (DL)
9. Stephen Fife (AAA)
10. Matt Magill (AAA)

The Dodgers had an even bigger logjam with the trio of Billingsley, Capuano, and Harang being established major league pitchers without rotation spots available, not prospects. The Dodgers had an exorbitant amount of pitching depth and designated Harang for assignment to address some of it. But since then, they have watched their entire staff come apart. Kershaw has been unhittable and Ryu has been great as well, and Beckett has stayed healthy. But beyond them, everything has come apart. Greinke will be out until June after the whole incident with Carlos Quentin. Billingsley will miss the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. Capuano is out with a calf strain. And Fife came up from Triple-A to make a start, but he’s out with shoulder bursitis. All of that necessitated the Dodgers to rely on Lilly straight off the DL and Magill in his major league debut. Suddenly the Dodgers are down to just five starters, and one more injury and they’ll be forced to either call up an organizational arm from Triple-A or rush a top prospect like Zach Lee or Chris Reed from Double-A. The Dodgers’ enviable depth disappeared in a flash and suddenly they’re hanging by a thread.

The past several years, the Rays have been extremely lucky. Since Scott Kazmir left in 2009, just one Rays pitcher has missed time with a significant injury: Jeff Niemann in 2011 and 2012. That’s it. David Price and Jeremy Hellickson have missed a couple starts, but other than that, everyone has made each of their starts on turn. It’s a credit to the Rays for finding not just talented pitchers but durable ones. At the same time, though, their run of rotation health is something that could end at any second. If two pitchers go down, suddenly Archer and Odorizzi are key to the Rays’ success. That seems like an unlikely scenario–after all, the Dodgers have fallen victim to extreme misfortune and not a situation that happens with any regularity in baseball. Here’s one that could very well happen, though: let’s say that Hernandez’s results never improve, leading to a release to bring Archer to the major leagues. Then, the Rays would be just one injury way from calling up Odorizzi.

The chances are that the Rays’ incredible starting pitching depth will not do them much good this season. Their starting staff will stay basically healthy and they’ll be too many quality pitchers for five spots, prompting fans to demand that their team trades a starter to address their offensive woes. It’s only if everything goes wrong and several pitchers get injured that we would truly appreciate the Rays’ depth. No one wants to see that and it probably won’t happen. But even with that being the case, Rays fans should be content to know that the Rays are ready for the worst-case scenario and are going to do whatever they can to keep contending even if the injury bug their starting pitchers have avoided for years rears its ugly head.