3 keys to another victory as AL-best Rays win 11th straight at Trop

The big news for the Rays this week has been the progress they’ve made toward securing a long-anticipated long-term ballpark in the Tampa Bay area.

There’s a lot to like about the way they’re playing in their longtime home, too.

The Rays cruised to a 7-2 win over the Marlins on Friday night at Tropicana Field, continuing their winning ways inside their home dome. They have won 11 straight games at the Trop, matching the 2008 team (April 22-May 13) for the third-longest home winning streak in franchise history, and they’ve outscored their opponents, 51-14, during that remarkable run in St. Petersburg.

This Rivalry Weekend matchup has been one-sided the past few years, as Tampa Bay has won 29 of the past 36 Citrus Series meetings.

Granted, the Rays are playing well against pretty much everyone lately. They’ve won 17 of their past 20 games overall and 24 of 31 since April 10 to improve to an American League-best 29-14 on the year. They haven’t lost consecutive games since a three-game skid against the Pirates and Reds from April 19-21.

Here were three keys to the Rays’ latest win.

Mullins Mania
Even with virtually everything going the Rays’ way during the first quarter of the season, it has been hard to ignore the struggles of center fielder Cedric Mullins. Until last year, the longtime Oriole had been such a steady performer since his breakout campaign for Baltimore in 2021.

Mullins has provided strong defense in center field. He has been a positive influence in the clubhouse. He has had his moments, like a game-winning homer in the 13th inning of an 8-7 win in Pittsburgh on April 18.

Still, Mullins entered Friday’s series opener slashing just .150/.204/.228, with a stunningly low 22 OPS+. His minus-1.0 WAR was the lowest total on the team, according to FanGraphs.

But Mullins played his game against Miami, and he made a huge impact in a 4-for-4 night at the plate.

With Richie Palacios on second base in the second inning, Mullins dropped a perfect bunt for a base hit and stole second. When Hunter Feduccia lofted a sacrifice fly to deep left, Palacios scored and Mullins advanced to third, putting himself in position to dash and dive home with impressive speed on a Taylor Walls chopper to drawn-in first baseman Christopher Morel.

After another hit by Palacios in the fourth, Mullins reached on another bunt single. That made Mullins the first player in the Majors this season to record multiple bunt hits in the same game.

The Rays weren’t done bunting and running: Palacios was thrown out at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt, but Mullins and Feduccia promptly scored on a double by Walls.

Mullins’ biggest swing came in the sixth, when he launched a 1-1 slider from Marlins starter Janson Junk out to right field for his third homer of the season. And he capped his first four-hit game since May 2023 with another infield single, this one off Morel’s glove.

Interestingly, Mullins is the first player to have that particular type of dynamic offensive performance -- multiple bunt hits, a homer and a stolen base -- in the same game since Brayan Rocchio did it all for the Guardians in a 12-inning win over the Yankees on Aug. 20, 2024.

Pitching to plan
With right-hander Jesse Scholtens willing to play whatever role he’s asked, the Rays capitalized on the opportunity to slot in lefty Ian Seymour as an opener on Friday night. It worked out well for everyone involved, except the Marlins.

Seymour allowed just one run over two innings in his first start of the season, then Scholtens efficiently worked five innings on 68 pitches (44 strikes) while permitting just one run on five hits and no walks. That gave the rest of the bullpen a breather on top of Thursday’s off-day, as reliever Casey Legumina handled the eighth and ninth.

The Rays improved to 4-0 when using an opener this season and 112-72 (.609) since introducing the concept on May 19, 2018, in Anaheim.

No slumps detected
It’s exceedingly rare to see an extended cold streak by Yandy Díaz. That’s just how pure and talented of a hitter the Rays’ veteran DH is.

But Díaz was mired in a season-worst 0-for-15 skid before singling in his final two at-bats on Wednesday in Toronto and ending the road trip with his 11th multi-hit game of the season.

Díaz went right back to work on Friday, pulling a first-pitch sweeper from Junk out to left field for his sixth home run of the season. It was also Díaz’s 105th homer as a Ray, breaking a tie with Carl Crawford for seventh most in franchise history.

How important was that first-inning strike? Well, the Rays are now 20-4 this season when scoring first.