Invincible Rays belt 5 homers en route to 7th straight win

ST. PETERSBURG -- There are plenty of numbers that explain how well things are going for the undefeated Rays. For starters, consider this one:

Tampa Bay’s lineup has launched 18 homers, the same number of total runs allowed by the pitching staff so far this season.

“I guess that's good,” catcher Christian Bethancourt said with a smile.

The Rays’ all-around dominant start to the season continued Friday night as they slugged five homers and played stellar defense in a 9-5 win over the A’s at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay is the first team in the Majors to win its first seven games of the season since the Orioles in 2016.

The Rays' 7-0 start trails only the 2003 Royals (nine straight wins) for the longest season-opening win streak of the Wild Card Era. And each victory has come by at least four runs, the longest such streak to begin a season in MLB history since the 1884 St. Louis Maroons' 13-game streak.

The Rays have outscored their opponents, 53-18, while putting together their longest winning streak since a nine-gamer from Aug. 21-31, 2021. Tampa Bay’s run prevention probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially against three opponents (Detroit, Washington and Oakland) that had a combined winning percentage of .372 last season. But the Rays are beating teams with their bats, too.

It’s early, but the club is displaying power that was too often absent from its injury-riddled lineup last season. One of its runs Friday scored on a bases-loaded walk, and the other eight came via home runs.

“I think they're proving a lot of people wrong. We have a lot of dogs in our lineup who not only put on great ABs but absolutely smoke the ball,” said starter Zach Eflin, who allowed three runs over six innings while striking out seven. “It's huge for us as pitchers when we don't have our best stuff for the offense to keep us in the game and really battle.”

Harold Ramírez began Friday’s display of power -- the Rays' first five-homer performance since Oct. 2, 2021 -- by leading off the second inning with a solo shot to right field against A’s starter Ken Waldichuk.

Waldichuk walked three of the next four hitters he faced, with a Jose Siri single mixed in for good measure, to allow another run. After two strikeouts, Isaac Paredes made Waldichuk pay by sending a 355-foot moonshot out to left field for his second career grand slam.

“I was just trying everything I could just to get one run in,” Paredes said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “Luckily, I was able to connect on that one.”

The Rays batted around in the second, already the third time this year they’ve sent at least nine hitters to the plate in one inning. It’s the second time they’ve done so in support of Eflin, alongside their seven-run third against the Tigers last Saturday.

The right-hander’s not complaining about the long break between innings.

“I can definitely get used to it. I've got no problem with it,” Eflin said, smiling. “I'll take however much time in between innings to see those guys touch home plate.”

The hits kept coming in the third inning, as Manuel Margot and Bethancourt went deep against Waldichuk, becoming the ninth and 10th different hitters to homer for Tampa Bay this season. Wander Franco got in on the action in the eighth, sending his third homer of the year out to right-center off right-hander Adam Oller.

“We've got to be very pleased with the way everybody in the lineup is contributing,” manager Kevin Cash said. “The power, I'm not going to say that we didn't expect it -- maybe not quite as much as what's taken place in the early going.”

On the other hand, the Rays have come to expect the excellent defense they saw from Siri and Taylor Walls on Friday night.

“Our defense was awesome,” Cash said. “Taylor Walls was his own highlight reel. Obviously, Siri was.”

Starting at second base, Walls was responsible for a pair of gems: a diving stop in the fifth and a nifty scoop to retire the speedy Esteury Ruiz in the seventh. Meanwhile, Siri fired a 95.3 mph dart from center field to cut down Ramón Laureano at the plate in the second, then he crashed into the outfield wall to rob Seth Brown of extra bases in the eighth.

“The wall and I are just giving a little love with each other,” Siri said through Navarro. “The wall and I know each other a lot.”