ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – In their first full week of summer camp workouts, the Tampa Bay Rays threw their first simulated game, with four pitchers being used over the 9 inning span.

Although unlike a normal game there were no outfielders and pitching coach Kyle Snyder was calling balls and strikes, but it was the closest thing to a baseball game as we’ve seen at Tropicana Field since the 2019 postseason.

Charlie Morton and Ryan Yarbrough got the most simulated game action Wednesday, combining to face 26 batters with Morton throwing 47 pitches in four innings of work.

“I think my stuff is getting where it needs to be,” Morton said after his outing. “Today I went out there for a 4th up and I felt like I was working on my endurance and still had pretty decent stuff in the 4th.”

Morton struck-out three giving up two runs on four hits, including a home run to Michael Perez as an extra batter after his 4 innings.

As for Yarbrough, he threw 38 pitches in 3.1 innings, giving up just one hit and no runs and striking out three.

“Being here beforehand and kind of being able to ramp up here at the Trop the last couple weeks,” Yarbrough said. “It was nice the fact that we had faced hitters but it had either been in a bullpen session or on the field. But it was nice for once to throw to a catcher instead of one of the bullpen guys. Plus having guys behind you so you could really get an idea of how everything’s moving, how guys are making contact. It’s definitely a step in the right direction and kind of keep building up that way.”

Blake Snell and Trevor Richards combined to finish-out the simulated game, facing about half as many hitters as Morton and Yarbrough did.

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