Reflecting on his on-the-fly role change from late-inning reliever to full-time starter, Griffin Jax said on Tuesday it felt like both “forever ago” and “yesterday” that he was pitching out of the Rays’ bullpen. Those contradictory feelings have more to do with the passage of time than anything related to his performance, because Jax has clearly made himself at home in Tampa Bay’s rotation. The right-hander made his 11th start on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, matching the number of relief appearances he made to start the season, and he did what he’s done nearly every time he’s taken the mound to begin the game: He gave the Rays a chance to win. Thanks to some opportunistic offense, the Rays capitalized on another strong outing from Jax and beat the Royals, 5-3, putting them in position to split the four-game series if they win Thursday afternoon’s finale. Jax racked up a season-high seven strikeouts and worked around five hits and two walks over five innings. “I've been definitely happy with everything, and just continuing to learn,” Jax said. “When you've got the best pitching coach in the Major Leagues on your side, it helps, and then some other really quality starters in the room to lean on. It's just made the experience that much better.” Jax has allowed three runs or fewer in 10 of his 11 starts, dating back to his test run as an opener on April 26, and he’s put together a 2.40 ERA in this role compared to an 8.00 mark as a reliever. This outing was the fourth straight time -- and sixth overall -- Jax completed five innings. He’s yet to pitch past the fifth due to a combination of workload limitations, a recent blister issue (which wasn’t a factor against Kansas City) and the occasional high pitch count, like the season-high 88 he threw on Wednesday. “Would like to be a little bit more efficient so I can go out for the sixth, maybe the seventh there,” Jax said. “But just to grind through that game and get through five there, I was happy about that.” Especially after how the game started.
