'It was a beautiful feeling': Yandy sets franchise-record hit streak in win

ST. PETERSBURG -- For a moment, Yandy Díaz thought he had drawn a walk. For once, he was happy to be wrong.

When he was called back to home plate, he had another chance to write his name in the Rays’ record books.

Leading off the third inning of the Rays’ series-opening 3-1 win against the Nationals on Friday night at Tropicana Field, Díaz lined a clean single to center field that extended his hitting streak to 20 games, breaking the Tampa Bay franchise record that had been held by Jason Bartlett since 2009.

But the muscular leadoff man’s record-breaking hit came at the end of an unusual sequence.

In his first at-bat against Nationals left-hander Mitchell Parker, Díaz thought he might have hit a home run. He crushed a 102.9 mph fly ball out to center field, but it landed a Statcast-projected 395 feet away in the glove of Jacob Young.

Returning to the plate in the third, Díaz fouled off Parker’s first four pitches then took three more outside the strike zone. After the seventh pitch of the plate appearance, he removed his shin guard and started down the first-base line.

“He kind of buckled us all there,” Rays manager Kevin Cash quipped.

After walking back to finish the at-bat, Díaz strapped on his shin guard and lined the next pitch, a fastball, to center field with an exit velocity of 109.4 mph. History in hand, he pumped his right fist on the way to first base.

“It was a beautiful feeling,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “You always want to break some records, and when you break a record like that, you've got to celebrate it.”

Díaz waved his hand, asking the Nationals to set aside and save the baseball that will soon be framed inside his house to commemorate the accomplishment.

“Congrats to him. That's pretty awesome,” Cash said. “Pretty special to do something, be kind of by yourself in Rays history. Certainly, congrats to Jason Bartlett. We're all pretty pumped for Yandy.”

With a two-hit game against the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon, Díaz matched the 19-game streak Bartlett put together with the Rays from May 15-June 25, 2009. The Rays were the only Major League franchise that had not seen a player record a hitting streak of at least 20 games, but the reigning American League batting champion changed that Friday night.

“He's incredible. He truly is,” said starter Zach Eflin, who struck out six over six scoreless innings to pick up his first win since May 13. “And not only is he a great baseball player, but he's a great person, so it's easy to root for something like that.”

The Rays saw the most consistently productive version of Díaz last year, when he hit .330/.410/.522 with 22 homers and 78 RBIs. That made his uncharacteristically slow start to this season even more perplexing.

At the end of play on May 1, Díaz was batting just .211 with a .556 OPS. There was some bad luck involved, as he entered Friday with 79 hard-hit outs, according to Statcast, tied with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for most in the Majors.

But he has found his discipline and timing during this streak, and perhaps a little bit better fortune. Since beginning his streak with a single off Baltimore’s Cole Irvin on June 7, he’s improved his average from .243 to .274 and his OPS from .669 to .721.

“I think if you go back and look at all the balls he's hit right on the barrel and not getting much to show for it, that adds even more frustration to it,” Cash said. “Really, really impressed with what he's doing -- and hopefully it continues.”

Díaz is batting .360 (32-for-89) with three homers, three doubles and 11 RBIs during his 20-game streak, the second-longest active run in the Majors behind Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds (24 games).

Along with his hitting streak, Díaz has put together a career-best 29-game on-base streak -- the second-longest active streak in the Majors behind the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson (35 games) and Tampa Bay’s longest run since Wander Franco (43 games) in 2021.

Díaz saw one streak end, however. His run of games with an RBI ended at eight, tied for the franchise record. Jose Siri was happy to pick up the run production against the Nationals, bashing 833 feet worth of home runs in his fifth career multi-homer game as the Rays pulled back to .500 for the 16th time this season.

As Díaz has improved, so have the Rays.

“He sets such a solid tone for us,” Cash said. “It does feel like he's making up for some quiet first couple of weeks. I think the offense, the rest of the guys, have kind of followed suit.”