Another day, another win for the molten hot Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays improved to a perfect 9-0 with Sunday afternoon's blowout win over the Oakland Athletics (TB 11, OAK 0). They are the 13th team in MLB history to begin a season 9-0.
Second baseman Brandon Lowe had the big blow Sunday. He clobbered a fourth inning grand slam against A's righty James Kaprielian to break the game open. Wander Franco went deep as well, and starter Drew Rasmussen held Oakland to one double in seven otherwise spotless innings. He struck out eight.
Sunday's home runs by Franco, Lowe, and Harold Ramírez gave Tampa 24 home runs through nine games. The 2000 Cardinals hold the record with 25 homers in their first nine games. No other team entered play Sunday with more than 18 homers.
The Rays have won every game this season by at least four runs and they've outscored their opponents 75-18. Their plus-57 run differential is nearly triple the next best team (Dodgers at plus-21 entering Sunday). Tampa is the eighth team in history to win nine straight games by at least four runs at any point in the season, and the first since the 1939 Yankees.
The Tampa Bay Rays are the first team since 1884 with a run differential of more than 50 over their first nine games of the season, according to @ESPNStatsInfo.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 9, 2023
In 1884, the mound was 50 feet from home and it was the first year pitchers were allowed to throw the ball overhand.
As noted earlier, the Rays are the 13th team in baseball history to begin a season 9-0. Here are the other 12 teams to start a season with nine consecutive wins:
13-0: 1987 Brewers, 1982 Braves
11-0: 1981 Athletics
10-0: 1966 Indians, 1962 Pirates, 1955 Dodgers*
9-0: 2003 Royals, 1990 Reds*, 1984 Tigers*, 1944 Browns, 1940 Dodgers, 1918 Giants
* Asterisk indicates team went on to win the World Series.
If there is a caveat to this season-opening winning streak, it's the competition. The Rays have opened the season with series against the Tigers, Nationals, and Athletics. They were widely expected to be three of the worst -- if not the worst -- teams in baseball this season. Those three clubs combined for a .372 winning percentage last year, or a 102-loss pace.
That said, you can only play the schedule you're given, and any team can beat any other team on any given night in this game. The Rays have taken advantage of their early schedule and banked a lot of wins. It took 86 wins to get into the postseason in the American League last year. If that holds true again, Tampa only needs to go 77-76 the rest of the way to get into October.
The Rays will look to become only the seventh team in history to begin a season 10-0 in Monday's series opener against the AL East rival Boston Red Sox at Tropicana Field. Josh Fleming (0-0, 15.00 ERA) and Nick Pivetta (0-1, 1.80 ERA) are the scheduled starting pitchers.
