Facing veterans, Adames has career night

As an opposing manager, Michael Johns had his eye on Willy Adames last season. Now that the shortstop is on his own team, the skipper continues to enjoy watching him play.

The Rays' third-ranked prospect collected a career-high four hits and drove in three runs Saturday night as Class A Advanced Charlotte topped St. Lucie, 10-4, at Tradition Field.

"We got a good game, great win today. I feel blessed," Adames said. "[I was] seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand and I recognized the pitch… It's always good to have good at-bats."

While managing Class A Bowling Green last year, Johns watched Adames spend the first half of the season with the Tigers' affiliate in West Michigan. He noted how well he managed the strike zone and soon, the Rays were seeing it, too. At the trade deadline, Adames was sent to Tampa Bay in the three-team trade headlined by David Price.

"He's the kind of kid you root for, no matter who you are. He's just a really good kid, and for him to only be 19 and to have this kind of makeup is really impressive. It's one of the things that really stood out to us before we traded for him," Johns said. "I thought we were getting a good makeup guy, and he's proving to be even more than what I thought we were getting."

Although he went hitless in his first three games of the season, MLB.com's No. 74 overall prospect has found his groove with a .469 average in his last 10 contests. 

"He was laying off stuff and missing his fastball and now he's not. He's still laying off some pitches, but he's not missing the fastball and I think he's really just calmed himself down, calmed his swing down," Johns said. "I think mentally he finally figured out he's a really good hitter. He's one of those guys when he gets hot, there aren't many people in the league that are better than him."

Facing rehabbing Major Leaguers Dillon Gee, Vic Black and Bobby Parnell, Adames went 4-for-5 with a double and a run scored. The only one able to retire the teenager was Gee, who struck out Adames in the first. Even then, Johns said he saw no signs of concern in his No. 3 hitter or reservations about facing big league veterans.

"You would've never known it about the way Willy went about his approach. Just stayed in the middle of the field and really, really laid off the tough pitches and did a good job getting a good pitch to drive," Johns added. "Even though those guys are rehabbing, they're still trying to get outs, nobody wants to get embarrassed. So he was really good."

After the punchout, Adames singled to right field in the third, smacked a ground-rule double to center -- which Johns said was almost a home run -- in the fifth and singled twice in the Stone Crabs' seven-run seventh.

While the native of the Dominican Republic was raking, teammate Granden Goetzman was lighting up the basepaths. The 22-year-old left fielder stole a career-high five bags as Charlotte totaled ninth thefts.

"Obviously, the Major League Baseball players were rehabbing, so they're sometimes slower to the plate, so we kind of took advantage of that early in the game," Johns said. "And [Goetzman] got great jumps and he has a really good feel for when to steal and when not to steal. Early in the game, we needed stolen bases because we weren't driving anybody in. And it was awesome; he can really run."

In his first rehab outing, Gee yielded a run on six hits while striking out seven over four innings. Black (0-2) took the loss after allowing a run on two hits and a walk in the fifth, while Parnell gave up a run on one hit and two walks with one punchout in the sixth.