Rays' Aaron Civale: Focusing on pitch mix

Civale is working on narrowing his pitch mix this spring to more effectively retire right-handed hitters, Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Civale has minor reverse platoon splits for his career, surrendering a .319 wOBA to righties as opposed to a .290 wOBA to lefties. The Rays have asked him to focus on retiring righties by narrowing his pitch mix, as he currently throws four pitches at least 12 percent of the time. Given that context, he wasn't particularly concerned with his first appearance in the Grapefruit League, during which he surrendered five earned runs across 2.2 innings Monday against the Pirates.