NEW YORK — Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ryan Pepiot was hospitalized for a knee infection and will miss his scheduled start at Toronto on Tuesday.
Pepiot was placed on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Friday, and right-hander Tyler Zuber was recalled Sunday from Triple-A Durham and in position to make his first big league appearance in three years.
Pepiot was admitted to Columbia University Medical Center to receive antibiotics in his right knee.
“It kind of cropped up right at that last day of the All-Star break, said he had some soreness," Rays manager Kevin Cash said Sunday. "He didn’t think much of it, and then it progressively got worse. I saw his knee, it's blown up pretty good, so he’s been in the hospital getting IVs. He’s totally fine and doing well on the progress end, but probably going to take some time to get all that inflammation out of there.”
A 26-year-old right-hander, Pepiot is 6-5 with a 3.92 ERA in 17 starts. He was acquired from the Dodgers in December as part of the trade that sent right-hander Tyler Glasnow to Los Angeles.
Pepiot last pitched on July 14, throwing six innings of two-hit ball in a 2-0 win over Cleveland. Cash expects Pepiot will be activated as soon as he is eligible.
Zuber was 1-5 with a 5.29 ERA in 54 relief appearances for Kansas City in 2020 and '21 and last pitched in the major leagues on Sept. 30, 2021.
He missed the 2022 season with right shoulder impingement, was claimed by Arizona off waivers that October and assigned outright to Triple-A. Zuber had a 5.23 ERA last year in 16 relief appearances with the Reno Aces, signed a minor league contract with Cleveland and was released after seven spring training appearances.
Zuber signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, had a 1.59 ERA in six relief appearances and signed a minor league contract with the Rays on May 14.
He was 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA in 18 relief appearances at Durham, striking out 29 in 21 2/3 innings while averaging 92.5 mph with his fastball, which he threw 68.7% of the time. He averaged 83.8 mph with his slider, which he threw 29.6% of the time.
“He’s put up some pretty good numbers,” Cash said. “Looks like he’s figured some stuff out.”
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