Confident Rays not surprised by excellent start to season

April 12, 2023  -ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The streaking Tampa Bay Rays are running out of superlatives to describe baseball’s best start in more than three decades.

Remarkable, incredible, unbelievable — even crazy — are words players have used to describe the dominant, all-around team effort that has carried them to an 11-0 record that’s the toast of the big leagues two weeks into the season.

The Rays, who have made the playoffs each of the past four years, expected to be good.

But no one could have envisioned them joining the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers, 1982 Atlanta Braves, 1981 Oakland Athletics, 1966 Cleveland Indians, 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers as the only clubs to begin seasons with double-digit win streaks. Of those teams, only the Dodgers won the World Series.

“Pretty exciting. Doing it the way we have, every facet of our game is really performing, producing and contributing,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Normally it doesn’t work out that way.”

Through Tuesday night’s 7-2 victory against the Boston Red Sox, the Rays have swatted a majors-leading 29 homers and outscored opponents 83-20 for baseball’s fastest getaway since the ’87 Brewers won 13 in a row to tie the ’82 Braves for the longest win streak to start a season.