Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ryan Pepiot is hopeful that he will be able to return to big league action as soon as this week. It has been nearly a month since the last time Pepiot pitched in an MLB game, as he landed on the 15-day injured list last July due to a knee infection that may have been caused by a spider bite while the league was on a break for the All-Star festivities.
“The first couple days, like, when I went into the hospital, it was real bad,” Pepiot prior to Monday's 6-1 Rays loss at the hands of the Houston Astros at home, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).
“I couldn't put any weight on my right leg. The first few days it was pretty swollen, a lot of fluid, and it was kind of slushy,” Pepiot added.
Pepiot was brought to the Columbia University Medical Center in New York to get his right knee treated with antibiotics before landing on the injured list. The Rays opened their schedule in the second half of the 2024 MLB regular season with a four-game series in the Bronx against the New York Yankees, with Pepiot joining the team but was never able to see action in that set nor in any Rays games since.
An encouraging sign for Pepiot and the Rays was his solid minor league rehab with the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits last Saturday in which he allowed zero earned runs and just a hit while striking out seven hitters in just 3.1 innings of duty on the mound.
Pepiot is unlikely to see action in the ongoing series between the Rays and the Astros but he could be in line to toe the rubber for the first time since the All-Star break on Friday when Tampa Bay hosts the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks for a three-game interleague series at Tropicana Field that begins this coming Friday.
Playing in his first season with the Rays, Pepiot has a 6-5 record to go with a 3.92 ERA and 1.076 WHIP through 17 starts so far in the 2024 MLB campaign. In his most recent start, Pepiot, who was traded to Tampa Bay by the Los Angeles Dodgers last December, allowed no runs and only two hits with four strikeouts in 6.0 innings during a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians at home on July 14.
The hope for Pepiot is that he'll still be able to sustain the form he had prior to his injured list designation. In his last three starts, Pepiot has gone 2-1 with a 1.72 ERA.
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