Rays Defeat Astros, Continue Historic Start to Season

The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Houston Astros 8-3 Monday.

20/23 to start the season ain't bad#RaysUp

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 25, 2023

With the win, the Rays claim the modern record with 14 consecutive home wins to start a season.

Rays

Tampa continues their hot start to the season winning their 14th home game and becoming the first MLB team to reach 20 wins on the season.

The Rays gave up two runs in the first to the Astros before returning two of their own to tie it 2-2. The bottom of the third inning is when Tampa blew the game, open-plating four runs to go up 6-3. After a stalemate, the Rays were able add an insurance run to put them up 7-3 in the sixth.

https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/status/1650654702692958209?cxt=HHwWgoC8jZztpugtAAAA

Wander Franco was electric in the batters box and making plays at short stop, going 4-5 at the plate with two doubles and a stolen base. At shortstop, he was able to make a difficult over the shoulder catch.

Pitching was hot for Tampa, as Taj Bradley went five innings giving up just four hits. He gave up three runs and added six strikeouts to earn the win and start 3-0 on the season. After that, Kelly, Cleavinger and Beeks gave up two hits while adding three strikeouts to protect the lead for the Rays.

However, the Rays home-run streak came to an end at 22.

Astros

Houston started off hot, putting up three runs through the first three innings before the Rays were able to break the game open in the bottom of the inning.

In the first, the Astros were able to hit a triple off the very first pitch. Two batters later, they would add a sacrifice fly to plate before Bregman would hit a solo shot putting the Astros up 2-0. In the third, Pena was able to drive a solo shot deep to center putting the Astros up 3-2.

https://twitter.com/astros/status/1650631657551024131?cxt=HHwWhsC-teivnOgtAAAA

Pitching was not pretty for the Astros, as starter Uriquidy (1-2) gave up seven hits, six runs and two walks through 2.2 innings.

Martinez, Stanek and Blanco gave up seven hits, two runs and three walks through 5.1 innings. The Astros were able to get 11 Ks, but didn’t have the offense for it to impact the Rays.

The Astros also struggled in the box, only getting six hits with two of those being home runs (Pena and Bregman). It has been a rough start to the season for the Astros who are currently one game above .500. However, they are sitting 2.5 games behind the in-state Texas Rangers for first place in the AL West.

What’s Next

The Rays look to continue their historic start to the season looking for home win #15 to start the season (six more than anyone else). This also marked their seventh win in a row. They’re currently one game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates for the longest winning streak in the MLB currently.

The Astros on the other hand look to rebound after a tough loss and will look for some fire power from the offense tonight. The Astros will look to avoid losing the series in putting themselves in position for a sweep on Wednesday.

The two teams face off tonight with Garcia (Hou) and Rasmussen (Rays) on the mound. First pitch is set for 6:40.