Their 13 wins include three apiece over the Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, and Oakland Athletics. This is the easiest barb to shoot in the Rays’ direction. Tampa Bay had never won more than three games in a row to begin a season, and prior to this run, their longest win streak at any point of a season was 12 back in 2004, a year where they still managed to finish 21 games under. They had not! This officially marks the longest winning streak in the Rays’ 25 years of existence. Had the Rays ever won 13 in a row before? Buttercup was kicked off the team for drunkenness and didn’t even play the full season for St. Yes, those 1884 Maroons really employed a guy named Buttercup Dickerson, whose nickname, historians say, came from lying in the grass because he got too turnt. This makes the 2023 Tampa Bay Rays one of just four teams in baseball’s long and twisted history to start the season on this kind of heater, a stat that makes me a little dizzy if I think about it too hard.Īlso, you’re probably going to hear little snickers about this from every corner of the baseball internet, so let’s just get it out of the way. Louis Maroons to find the last team to storm out of the gates with 13 consecutive W’s. But before that, you’ve got to go back to the 1884 St. Live updatesĬan't see the chatter? Refresh the page or check it out on Twitter.The 1987 Milwaukee Brewers were the last team to start the year with 13 straight wins. Saturday with a matchup between right-hander Spencer Turnbull and righty Zach Eflin (the Rays’ big offseason signing, and a childhood friend of Tigers center fielder Riley Greene). The Tigers, meanwhile, will send lefty Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound for his second Opening Day start for the franchise last season’s outing - like so many for the Tigers - went awry early, as he gave up three runs over four innings at Comerica Park before a late Tigers rally turned a loss into a 5-4 victory.Īfter the opener, both teams have Friday off - just in case a surprise snowstorm breaks out at the Trop on Thursday, we suppose - before picking up the series at 4:10 p.m. McClanahan was a beast last season, striking out 194 and walking 38 over 166 1/3 innings en route to a 2.54 ERA, the starting nod for the AL in the All-Star Game and a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young voting.ĪROUND THE LEAGUE: MLB predictions 2023: Here are your division winners, World Series champ 31 overall pick in the 2018 draft out of the University of South Florida (which is actually north of St. They don’t spend a lot, but they make smart moves - stealing 2021 AL Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena from the Cardinals in a trade -and draft well, including today’s starter, lefty Shane McClanahan, the No. The Rays have grown a lot as a franchise since then, and are coming off four straight playoff appearances. (Yes, that was the Rays’ attendance for a single game, and not the homestand - we checked.) Petersburg they beat the then-Devil Rays, 11-6, in the franchise’s MLB debut in MaAww, they’re turning 25! Finally old enough to rent a car! (A compact economy budget-saver, of course these are still the Rays…) - then returned on Apfor a 9-5 loss at Tropicana Field in front of 38,142 fans. This is the Tigers’ third Opening Day in St. They’re 4-2 in the six openers over that span, with the only losses coming in 2018 (an 13-inning affair that featured the potential walk-off winning run against the Pittsburgh Pirates overturned via replay review) and 2020 (when the season didn’t begin until late July, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Game notes: Despite the Tigers’ … er … difficulties winning over the past six seasons (with their most recent winning record coming in 2016), they’ve been mostly successful on Opening Day.
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