Thursday, May 9

Unbeaten Rays making some early historical past with dominant begin

The Tampa Bay Rays are on such a roll, the one query is which of their stats is most spectacular.

They’re the primary workforce to begin 9-0 because the 2003 Kansas City Royals. They’ve scored essentially the most runs in baseball (75) and allowed the fewest (18).

They’ve gained each sport by not less than 4 runs. The final workforce to win this many in a row by not less than 4 – at any level within the season – was the 1939 New York Yankees, who did it for 10 straight video games.

And right here’s one other tidbit, due to the win chance stats at Baseball Savant: There’s solely been one sport throughout this streak wherein Tampa Bay’s win chance has been beneath 30% at any time.

That was Tuesday, when Washington led the Rays 6-4 after seven innings and was nonetheless forward 6-5 earlier than Tampa Bay scored 5 runs within the ninth to win 10-6. The Rays have solely trailed in a single different sport – they have been down 1-0 within the second Friday after they scored six runs within the backside of the inning on their method to a 9-5 win over Oakland.

There is a chicken-and-egg query surrounding Tampa Bay’s streak. The Rays have executed all of it in opposition to Detroit, Washington and Oakland, three groups who mixed to lose 305 video games final 12 months and are anticipated to be fairly poor this season as properly. Is Tampa Bay this good or are these different groups that dangerous?

The reply to that can come quickly sufficient, however proper now the Rays can get pleasure from a dominant stretch to begin the season.

BIG SETBACK

The Pittsburgh Pirates misplaced gifted younger shortstop Oneil Cruz to a fractured ankle Sunday when he was injured sliding into dwelling.

That was an enormous downer for a Pittsburgh workforce that’s really off to a promising begin. The Pirates beat the White Sox 1-0 for his or her fifth win in six video games. They’re 6-3 and only a sport out of first place within the NL Central.

Bryan Reynolds, nonetheless with Pittsburgh after requesting a commerce within the offseason, is hitting .405 and already has 5 homers.

TRIVIA TIME

The Milwaukee Brewers tied a report with 13 straight wins initially of the 1987 season. Later that 12 months, a Milwaukee participant went on the American League’s longest hitting streak since Joe DiMaggio’s 56-gamer in 1941. Who was the participant and the way lengthy was the streak?

LINE OF THE WEEK

This week’s honor goes to a minor league workforce. The Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts by some means completed a seven-inning sport with the next line Saturday: seven runs, no hits and no errors.

The Lookouts – an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds – beat the Rocket City Trash Pandas 7-5 within the first sport of a doubleheader. They scored all seven runs within the high of the seventh with out the good thing about a success – when Rocket City pitchers walked 5, hit 4 batters and threw a run-scoring wild pitch. A dropped fly ball with the bases loaded additionally performed an important position.

COMEBACK OF THE WEEK

The Blue Jays and Angels performed a wild one Sunday wherein each groups blew massive leads. Los Angeles had a win chance of 98.3% within the fifth inning whereas forward 6-0, however Toronto rallied to take a 10-6 benefit within the seventh. The Angels tied it within the ninth on Hunter Renfroe’s two-out, two-run double.

Toronto finally gained 12-11 in 10 innings. Shohei Ohtani grounded out with the bases loaded to finish the sport.

TRIVIA ANSWER

Paul Molitor hit safely in 39 consecutive video games in 1987, the identical season because the Brewers’ 13-0 begin. Despite all that, Milwaukee needed to accept a third-place end within the AL East with a 91-71 report.

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