Another day, another win. The Tampa Bay Rays continued their franchise-record winning streak to begin a season on Friday, defeating the Athletics, 9-5, on the back of five home runs.
Zach Eflin made the start Friday and dealt six innings of three-run ball, striking out seven. Eflin threw 60 of 83 pitches for strikes (72% strike rate). While he wasn’t as sharp as he was in his previous outing, giving up a lot of hard contact, the right-hander did enough to keep the A’s at bay. After making quick work of Oakland in the first inning, Seth Brown lead off the next frame with a single before Ramon Laureano moved him into third on a one-out double. Jace Peterson singled Brown home for the go-ahead lead, although a good home throw by José Siri made sure that lead would only be one. In the third inning, designated hitter Ryan Noda hit a one-out solo home run, while Eflin gave up another run in the fourth inning, however, that was all the right-hander — who bent but didn’t break — would allow.
Meanwhile, five different Rays homered on Friday. 10 of Tampa Bay’s 13 hitters have now homered in the first seven games of the season.
Harold Ramírez led off the second inning with a first-pitch solo home run that traveled 339 feet into the right-field stands. The 100 mph missile tied the game at one apiece.
After Manuel Margot walked and moved up to third when Siri singled (and took second on the play), Christian Bethancourt walked to load the bases for Taylor Walls. The infielder took a low heater for ball four, giving Tampa Bay a one-run lead.
Even though Yandy Díaz and Wander Franco struck out, Isaac Paredes blew the doors off the barn with a towering grand slam that landed into the first row of the left-field seats, giving the Rays all they would need. Yet, they wanted more…and more they would get.
Somehow, some Mark Kotsay kept starter Ken Waldichuk in the game in the third inning much to the delight of the Rays and the +18,000 fans in attendance. Margot greeted Waldichuk with a loud solo shot 427 feet into the left-center stands.
After Siri struck out, Bethancourt launched a solo shot of his own. The 104 mph bomb traveled 419 feet over the centerfield wall, giving the good guys a commanding six-run lead.
Calvin Faucher took over for Eflin in the seventh inning and allowed a solo home run to Shea Langeliers, which brought Oakland within four. However, Faucher put down the next three hitters to end the frame. Siri lent a hand to the cause, making a fantastic catch in center to keep the lead at four.
Franco, the de facto captain of the team, rewarded Faucher an inning and a half later, launching an Adam Oller hanging changeup 411 feet away, extending the lead.
Jason Adam took over in the ninth with his sights set on closing things out…although things wouldn’t come easy. Adam started the inning by striking out Laureano on a hit-by-pitch K and followed it up with a strikeout of Jace Peterson. But, Adam walked Langeliers on four pitches, then plunked Ruiz with a 3-2 pitch to put two on with two out. Tony Kemp followed with an RBI single that was just out of the reach of Walls. Adam bounced back and recorded the final out of the game, coaxing a Noda ground out to second.
The New What Next
Jeffrey Springs (1-0, 0.00 ERA, -0.27 FIP) will get the start in the middle game of the set on Saturday, pitching opposite Shintaro Fujinami (0-1, 30.86 ERA, 3.66 FIP).
Jeffrey Springs was fantastic in the series finale against the Tigers on Sunday, issuing just one walk over six no-hit innings. He struck out 12 on 81 pitches (58 strikes, 72% strike rate). The lefty coaxed 13 whiffs (16% SwStr) and recorded the first double-digit punchout performance of his big-league career. At one point, Springs recorded five consecutive strikeouts. Thus far, he has performed to a 0.00 ERA and -0.27 FIP, with a 0.17 WHIP, and a 12.00 K/BB.
Shintaro Fujinami coughed up eight runs on five hits and three walks while striking out four batters over 2.1 innings against the Angels. After 10 seasons of pitching in Japan, with the NPB’s Hanshin Tigers, Fujinami signed on with the Athletics in January. This likely wasn’t how he envisioned his first big-league start going, as Anaheim chased him after just 2.1 frames. The right-hander actually looked great over his first two frames, striking out four batters without allowing a baserunner, but the wheels fell off in the third, as Trout and company put eight of the first nine batters on base, with the only out being recorded on a sacrifice fly. All told Fujinami owns a 30.86 ERA and a 3.66 FIP, with a 3.43 WHIP, and a 1.33 K/BB. He relies primarily on a whiffy 97 mph fourseam fastball, an 84 mph worm-killer slider, and a hard 92 mph splitter that has some natural sink to it, while also mixing in an 88 mph cutter that boasts heavy sink.
You can read about the series in our preview, and the starting lineup is below.
Rays 4/8/23 Starting Lineup
- Díaz 1B
- B. Lowe 2B
- Arozarena DH
- Franco SS
- Raley LF
- Paredes 3B
- J. Lowe RF
- Margot CF
- Mejía C