Rays sting A’s, roll to 8-0 start

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MLB

• Oakland at Tampa Bay, NBCSCA, 10:10 a.m.

• Kansas City at San Francisco, NBCSBA, 1:05 p.m.

• San Diego at Atlanta, ESPN, 4:08 p.m.

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NBA

• Atlanta at Boston, ESPN, 10 a.m.

• Utah at L.A. Lakers, ESPN, 12:30 p.m.

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K risTie ACK erT TAMPA BAY TIMES

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Even when they “struggle,” the Rays find a way to keep their eightgame win streak rolling.

Jeffrey Springs wasn’t sharp early Saturday, but the defense helped him post another seven scoreless innings, and Tampa Bay’s bats came to life as the Rays routed the A’s 11-0 at Tropicana Field.

The Rays remain the only undefeated team in Major League Baseball, improving to 8-0. The are the first team in MLB to open the season with eight straight wins since the 2003 Royals. And it is the first time the team has won eight straight since winning 11 in a row in May 2021.

Springs is on a pretty good run himself. He scattered three hits and three walks Saturday, striking out seven. He issued two of those walks in the second inning, when Luke Raley threw out Jesus Aguilarat the plate to keep Springs’ streak of scoreless innings alive. Springs has now gone 13 innings without giving up a run.

“Overall I felt all right, not great, but it helps a lot when the offense is doing what they’re doing,” Springs said. “I mean, that’s definitely impres- sive to watch – just the professional ABs. They kept grinding it out. Their guy was pretty good early – different velocities, a lot of different pitches, it seemed like. Once they started swinging the bat, it was a lot of stress off of me, so I was out there just trying to get quick outs and go as deep as possible.”

Rays starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs turns in seven strong innings in Saturday’s win over the A’s at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Rays put up three more home runs on Saturday, including Brandon Lowe’s first of the season, a gigantic 431 shot to right-centerfield. Manuel Margot and Randy Arozarena also hit homers to give Tampa Bay a majorleague leading 21 on the season. The Rays, who finished 25th in homers last season, did not hit their 21st homer of 2022 until their 24th game on May 3.

“We’ll take them. I mean, hopefully we’ll con- tinue talking about home runs,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’re having good at-bats. That’s what’s encouraging. We saw their starter has good stuff. First time through the lineup, kind of quiet. Felt like we made some adjustments, put ourselves in hitters’ counts, took some walks. A lot of our early runs came because we had guys on base from walks, so a lot of good things there, and then obviously we separated and got some home runs.”

After going hitless against A’s right-hander Shintaro Fujinami for the first three innings, the Rays had to walk before they started running away with it.

Francisco Mejia drew the first of six walks Tampa Bay took as Fujinami started to lose the strike zone. Wander Franco singled in the fourth for the Rays’ first hit with Brandon Lowe on base to set up Isaac Paredes, whose grand slam on Friday headlined the offense. The infielder came through on Saturday in the fourth inning with a two-run single to get the offense going.

Fujinami lost command quickly. He hit 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 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 lead the majors with 64 runs scored, despite the fact that they didn’t go out and sign a big-name, left-handed bat in the offseason.

“We find ourselves in a really good position. We may not have signed any big names. Whatever decision the front office wanted to do, that’s on them. I never really liked to think that money plays the game,” Arozarena said. “We have a really good team. We’re a very united team. And as long as we play together, I think that’s going to show out on the field.”