ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It may not have been a hitless outing, but Jeffrey Springs was dominant again. The lefty continued his strong start with seven more scoreless innings Saturday as the Rays rolled over the A’s, 11-0, in front of a crowd of 15,880 at Tropicana Field to continue their unbeaten start to the season.
The Rays remain the only undefeated team in Major League Baseball, improving to 8-0 on the season. They are the first team since the 2003 Royals to open the MLB season with eight straight wins. It is the first time the team has won eight straight since they won 11 in a row in May 2021.
And the Rays are the first team since the 1939 Yankees to win eight games in a row by at least four runs.
Springs also has begun 2023 with a strong streak, with 13 scoreless innings. Saturday he scattered three hits and three walks. He struck out seven. Springs needed 89 pitches to get through seven innings, getting 15 swing-and-misses.
A day after they beat up the A’s with power, hammering five home runs, the Rays showed their versatility. After going hitless against A’s right-hander Shintaro Fujinami for the first three innings, Wander Franco singled with Brandon Lowe on base to set up Isaac Paredes, whose grand slam on Friday headlined the Rays offense. The infielder came through on Saturday in the fourth inning with a two-run single to get the Rays offense going.
Fujinami lost command quickly. He hit Manuel Margot and walked Franco to lead off the fifth. With one out, he loaded the bases by walking Lowe, before giving up a two-run single to Randy Arozarena. That ended Fujinami’s strange day in which he allowed five earned runs on three hits. He walked four and struck out one.
The Rays cobbled together another two runs against lefty Sam Moll on two hit batsmen and a single.
Then the Rays, who were 25th in the majors in home runs last season, really turned on the power.
Margot led off the sixth with his second home run of the season, off right-handed reliever Domingo Acevedo. Lowe hit his first home run of the season, a gigantic 431 shot to right-center field in that inning as well. The three runs on that home run were the second baseman’s first RBIs of the season.
Arozarena crushed a 66-mph “slider” from catcher Carlos Perez, who was pitching for the A’s in the blowout, for the Rays’ 21st homer of the season.
Tampa Bay did not hit its 21st homer of the season in 2022 until their 24th game of the season on May 3.
