TORONTO -- It’s been too long to call this a hot start. It’s been too impressive to call it a fluke.
The Rays have essentially played a quarter of their schedule, and they have the best record in the American League at 27-13 after Monday night’s 8-5 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
What the Rays have done so far has matched the 2020 club for the third-best 40-game start in franchise history, trailing only the 2023 (30-10) and 2010 (29-11) teams. The Braves (28-13) are the only team in the Majors with a better record than a Tampa Bay team that was widely projected to finish last in the AL East when the season began only 6 1/2 weeks ago.
“I'd like to keep this pace going,” starter Drew Rasmussen quipped. “Think we're gonna be in a really good spot if we can do that.”
They’ve won nine of their last 10 games and an MLB-best 25 of 33 since April 4, and they are a mind-boggling 19-3 against American League competition. According to MLB Network research, the Rays are also the first AL East team to win nine of their first 10 games against divisional opponents since the 1992 Blue Jays (also 9-1).
How are they doing it? Their latest victory provided a pretty good representation.
A stingy staff
By Rasmussen’s standards, it wasn’t necessarily a great start. That says a lot more about Rasmussen than it does about the way he pitched against the Blue Jays.
Rasmussen held Toronto to three runs, all on a second-inning swing by Andrés Giménez, over six innings. He gave up only four hits and a walk while striking out six in his franchise-record 46th consecutive start allowing four runs or fewer.
Giménez’s two-run homer off lefty Ian Seymour in the seventh inning made Monday night the first time since April 21 that the Rays allowed more than three earned runs in a game, snapping the franchise-record streak at 16 straight, the longest in the Majors since the Giants’ 18-game run in September 2010.
Still, the Rays have yielded only 29 total runs over their last 17 games.
“They certainly are pitching with a lot of confidence right now,” manager Kevin Cash said. “What they're doing as kind of a unit is really, really impressive.”
Small ball, stars and ‘the power of friendship’
The lineup’s depth and versatility have become key traits for the Rays. So has their eagerness to put the ball in play, as they entered Monday with the Majors’ best contact rate (82.8%) and second-lowest strikeout rate (18.6%).
“A lot of good things can happen when you move the ball,” center fielder Cedric Mullins said.
Jake Fraley and Richie Palacios exemplified another important aspect of the group’s success during a three-run rally in the first inning: playing a role, and playing it well.
Neither left-handed hitter had recorded an at-bat since last Tuesday, ceding time to outfielders Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Vilade and infielder Ben Williamson. But they were back in the lineup against right-hander Kevin Gausman and immediately did what they were put in there to do.
After singles by Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero and a sac fly by Jonathan Aranda, Fraley hit a two-out double and Palacios pounced on a two-run single to break open a three-run lead.
“Even when you're not starting, you're going to play on this team,” said Palacios, who picked up three hits on the night. “Everybody's always ready, trying to do the best that they can with their skill set.”
Starter Shane McClanahan insists the Rays’ clubhouse chemistry is a big part of this successful start, because it can’t be a coincidence that a group this close plays such a selfless brand of baseball.
“I’ve been joking around and calling it the power of friendship,” McClanahan said, grinning. “Obviously there is more to it than just that. Everybody here does what they do so well, and everybody's allowed to be who they are as a competitor, as a person, and it definitely translates.
Of course, it helps to have special players atop the order. The Rays have that in Simpson, Caminero, Aranda and Yandy Díaz.
Simpson, who best represents the Rays’ commitment to play small ball when necessary, racked up three hits and used his elite speed to manufacture a run in the fourth inning.
Aranda, who quietly leads the AL with 32 RBIs, handled the rest of the heavy lifting. He slapped a broken-bat RBI single in the second, then continued his career-long assault on Toronto’s staff with a Statcast-projected 415-foot solo shot to center in the fifth.
“Fortunately, I just play really well against them,” said Aranda, who’s hit 10 of his 32 career homers against the Jays, through interpreter Kevin Vera. “Thankfully, they're a division rival, and I'm able to come through.”