Tampa Bay Rays’ ace Chris Archer struggled in his spring training start against the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday afternoon.
Archer gave up two hits, walked two and threw two wild pitches in a 32-pitch inning, falling behind 2-0. He did pitch a scoreless second inning. In all, Archer threw 50 pitches, and 23 of them were balls.
“I think the biggest thing was when I got a few guys on base I was trying to do a little too much, obviously, like spiking my offspeed,” Archer said. “I had some glitches against a couple of batters, then I felt like I was back to myself.”
Toronto increased its lead to 4-1, partially on Brad Miller’s third throwing error in three days.
Taylor Motter had two hits for Tampa Bay.
Drew Smyly will make his second start of the spring on Thursday when the Rays host the Pirates in a 1:05 p.m. contest at Charlotte Sports Park.
