Andy Hechavarria makes incredible play in Rays debut

Well, Adeiny Hechavarria made his presence known early.

Prior to tonight’s game in Pittsburgh Pirates, the Tampa Bay Rays activated Adeiny Hechavarria and Kevin Cash penciled him as the starting short stop.

After a quiet first inning, Alex Cobb faced Josh Bell to start out the bottom of the second inning. After a first pitch strike, Bell drilled a ball on the ground towards the hole on the left side of the infield. Hechavarria responded instantly, running back to his right, eventually making a diving stop at the edge of the outfield grass.

Got to his feet in miliseconds, delivered a precise two hop throw to first that just barely beat Bell to the bag.

It was an incredible play in real time, but given time to really process it, the play was nothing short of astonishing.

These are the types of plays Rays fans will begin to see nightly while opposing teams will dread seeing any ball hit in the vicinity of short.

When the Rays the acquired Hechavarria they were doing it solely to improve their defense and his acquisition is already playing dividends as he has looked fantastic in the field with each ball that has come his way.

* UPDATE *

Following the publish of this post, Adeiny Hechavarria would drive in two runs that would prove vital to the Rays extra innings victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.