ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Eventually, it will have to get harder, but for now the Rays are just rolling over teams.
Tampa Bay continued its unbeaten start to the season Friday night by blasting a season-high five home runs, including a grand slam from Isaac Paredes, in a 9-5 win over the rebuilding A’s in front of 15,080 at Tropicana Field.
The Rays improved to 7-0 and remain the only unbeaten team in baseball. The A’s dropped to 2-5.
It is the first time the Rays have won seven straight games since May 2021, when they had an 11-game streak. They are the first team in baseball to start a season with seven straight wins since the 2016 Baltimore Orioles.
They are beating up on teams in every respect. The offense is on fire, the pitching is dominating and even the defense is showing up, with Jose Siri making a tremendous running catch into the center-field wall.
With home runs from Harold Ramirez, Manuel Margot, Christian Bethancourt, Wander Franco and the grand slam from Paredes, it was the second time this season (and in three games) the Rays have hammered at least four homers in a game. They did it just once last season, against the Yankees June 21 at the Trop.
Bethancourt’s home run was his first of the season, giving the Rays 10 players with at least one. It took Tampa Bay 20 games to get 10 players with a home run last season.
The Rays went into the game third in the majors with 13 home runs, behind only the Giants and Dodgers.
Ramirez got things started in the six-run second with a 339-foot leadoff home run off Ken Waldichuk, who then walked in a run with the bases loaded to set up Paredes’ second career grand slam. After throwing 41 pitches in the inning, Waldichuk came back out for the third and gave up a leadoff home run to Margot and a one-out homer to Bethancourt before getting out of the inning.
Franco homered in the bottom of the eighth off Adam Oller.
Zach Eflin threw six solid innings for the Rays. He allowed three earned runs on nine hits, including a home run. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter. Calvin Faucher gave up a home run to Shea Langeliers, and Jason Adam allowed a run with two outs in the ninth.
The home run Eflin allowed, Ryan Noda’s third-inning solo shot, was just the third the Rays’ pitching staff had allowed to start the season. Langeliers’ blast off Faucher was the fourth.
