ESPN 98.1 FM / 850 AM WRUF ESPN 98.1 FM / 850 AM WRUF
The Tampa Bay Rays continued their impeccable start to the season with an 11-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Catching Fire
Tampa Bay has been on a tear to begin the year. The Rays are just the 13th team in MLB history to win their first nine games of the season. Over the course of the dominant stint, Tampa holds an impressive +57 run differential. The Rays nearly triple the next closest run differential, which is the Dodgers at +21.
To say the Rays have started out hot is an understatement. There is no other team who even holds a candle to this Tampa roster. The Rays have won every single game this season by at least four runs. They were a marginal one big blast short of tying the record for home runs through the first nine games.
To put their success in terms of history, no other team has won nine games in a row by four or more runs since the 1939 New York Yankees. That Yankees squad had Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio on the roster – two of the greatest baseball players to ever live.
High fives to all our undefeated friends around the league pic.twitter.com/ifs2CVYyu7
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 9, 2023
Total Domination
Tampa secured their ninth win in a row in spectacular fashion.
Starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen guided the team to victory with seven flawlessly pitched innings, no earned runs and just one hit.
Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe blew the game wide open in the fourth with a grand slam to deep left field. From there, it was all Tampa. Harold Ramirez followed Lowes’ footsteps in the fifth, sending a two-run blast high and far over the left-centerfield fence. Tampa forced opposing starting pitcher James Kaprielian to throw a career-high 106 pitches in only four and two-thirds innings of baseball.
The Rays hitting chain only continued. They would tack on two more runs in the sixth, one more in the seventh and a final exclamation point 11th run in the eighth to finish off the Athletics.
Doing things that haven't been seen since the 1800s
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 9, 2023
Looking Ahead
The Rays look to extend their winning streak to 10 tonight when they host the Boston Red Sox. Tune in at WRUF tonight at 6 p.m. for live coverage of the game.
