Tampa Bay Rays Top Prospect Collects First Major League Hit on Friday

After being called up earlier in the day, Tampa Bay Rays top prospect Curtis Mead collected his first major league hit against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Mead made his big-league debut in Friday's 8-0 win over the Tigers. He singled in his lone at-bat.

ANALYSIS
Recalled earlier in the day, Mead wasted no time collecting his first big-league base knock. He entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning -- perhaps not the dream scenario for a debut, but Mead now has his first hit out of the way and won't have that pressure on him when he makes his first career start, likely Saturday against lefty Tarik Skubal. Widely considered a top prospect in the organization, Mead has hit .291/.379/.453 with three homers and three steals in 46 games with Triple-A Durham this season.

You can see the hit here, which was a single through the right side.

G'day mate!

A moment Curtis will never forget 🙌 pic.twitter.com/wZpVnlq6Vz
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 5, 2023

Mead is ranked the No. 3 prospect in the organization, per MLB.com.

With the win, the Rays are now 67-45 on the season. Because the Orioles also won, they remain 2.0 games back in the American League East.

The Rays and Tigers will play each other again on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. ET as Skubal (DET) pitches against new Rays pitcher Aaron Civale, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Cleveland Guardians.

Skubal is 1-1 with a 4.57 ERA this year while Civale is 5-2 with a 2.34 ERA.

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