CHICAGO — The long baseball season sort of caught up with Tampa Bay's Ryan Pepiot last week. After making 29 straight starts, the right-handed starting pitcher got scratched from his outing on Wednesday because of ''overall body fatigue.''
Rest and recovery are a wonderful thing, though, and he feels much better now, he said Sunday morning the Rays' clubhouse at Wrigley Field. He threw a brief bullpen session Saturday and everything was fine, so he'll rejoin the rotation on Tuesday night in Tampa when the Rays take on the Toronto Blue Jays.
"I felt fine, I felt normal. The extra days of rest definitely helped,'' Pepiot said. "I spent time in the training room getting things back to normal. I feel good, so I'm ready to get back out there.
"I think that's it, finishing strong. Ultimately, I think it was the right decision to skip a start over health. But I'm a competitor and I want to be out there. Especially in a stretch of 13 in a row, I want to be out there.''
Pepiot has a team-leading 11 wins on the season and has been great lately. He's had three straight scoreless starts where he gave up one hit or less, just the second pitcher in major-league history to do so. (Dylan Cease was the other, in 2024 for San Diego.) He's pitched 163 innings so far, 33 more than his career high.
"Sometimes as a competitor, you just say 'ah, it's September' and you'll be fine,'' Pepiot said when asked about pitching through the fatigue. "But when you peel back layers and talk about it, you are able to actually to come up with a well thought out answer and make a good decision going forward instead of going pedal to the metal and throwing through in and potentially making it worse.''
The Rays aren't sure who will start Monday when they open the final homestand of the season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. That would have been Pepiot's normal spot in the rotation. They used a bullpen day last Wednesday, and lost to the Chicago White Sox.
It's possible that Joe Boyle may be recalled from Durham to get the start. He'd be pitching regular rest.
Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder talked to the media Sunday, and said Pepiot will still be monitored for his innings, which has been the plan in the second half with him and fellow starters Drew Rasmussen and Shane Baz.
"We've been pulling back on their innings and ups, but I fully expect him to go out and compete for five innings for us,'' Snyder said. "We're pretty mindful of where those three guys are with their totals. Ras has never gone wire-to-wire healthy; Baz the same. We're just trying to look out for them.
"The 163 innings is kind of an arbitrary number, and it's a fair question to ask (if that's enough). A lot of guys are prideful about those things, and they don't want to go on the IL if they're not hurt. They don't want to shut it down.''
Pepiot said the exact same thing.
It was written on Roundtable Sports last week that maybe 163 innings was enough, and getting to the offseason healthy should be a factor. But Pepiot said he's looking forward to getting back on the mound, and he has every intention of making his final three starts.
"I don't really want to quit on the year,'' Pepiot said. "We play 162 for a reason, and I feel I want to be out there. Ultimately, they make those decisions and it's not my own decision, but I don't want to quit on this team.
"I've seen all the work that everyone's put in on this team and I don't want to be the guys that sits down and watches the last couple of weeks.
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