25 Noe Ramirez RP

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Ramirez would start Tuesday against the Rockies in what amounts to a bullpen day for the pitching staff, Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times reports.

The assignment comes after Ramirez earned his first career save in Monday's series opener with a scoreless ninth inning. Ramirez, who was pressed into the save situation with normal closer Blake Parker unavailable after working Saturday and Sunday, will become the first pitcher in franchise history to start a game one day after recording a save. Considering the right-hander tossed 19 pitches in Monday's outing and has maxed out at 49 pitches and three innings over 60 appearances this season, he likely won't work deep enough into the start to qualify for the win.

Ramirez fired a pair of scoreless innings while striking out three in a 5-3 loss to Toronto on Tuesday.

It was the 29-year-old's finest outing this month after he surrendered runs in three of his previous six outings. Ramirez is posting a career-best 12.0 K/9 while serving a long-relief role for the Halos this year (nine of his 24 appearances have gone longer than one inning).

Ramirez gave up a solo home run and struck out two batters over 1.1 innings in Sunday's loss to the Giants.

Manager Mike Scioscia had to empty his bullpen after Jaime Barria needed 77 pitches to get through two frames. Ramirez is fairly low on the bullpen depth chart, but he is already one inning away from matching his career high of 13 innings. The 28-year-old owns a respectable 3.75 ERA with 16 strikeouts over those 12 innings, but his 1.75 WHIP is far too high to give him value as a strikeout reliever even in deep formats.

Ramirez has been told he'll make the 25-man roster for Opening Day, Jeff Miller of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Ramirez had a 4.38 ERA this spring but made a strong impression with 14 strikeouts and two walks in 12.3 innings. Ramirez has had strong minor league strikeout rates despite a fastball that last season failed to average 90 mph, but a high walk rate has typically been his undoing.