The Tampa Bay Rays rearranged the cast members a bit, but the end of the show was just as big of a smash.
With their most expensive free-agent signing in club history, starter Zach Eflin, sidelined with a back injury, the club unveiled top prospect Taj Bradley to keep their unbeaten start to the 2023 season alive. And after Bradley and a potent lineup staked them to a five-run lead, the Rays hung on Wednesday to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 9-7, and put them on the doorstep of history.
It was Tampa Bay’s 12th victory in a row, the most to start a season since the Milwaukee Brewers went 13-0 to start the 1987 season. They can equal the Brewers and the 1982 Atlanta Braves on Thursday afternoon, when they aim for a four-game sweep of Boston at Tropicana Field.
The lowdown on the amazing Rays:
Smash debut
Bradley, 22, has been among the game’s top pitching prospects for several years, and was ranked the game’s No. 18 prospect this year by MLB.com. But the Rays’ dominant rotation and some needed fine-tuning of Bradley’s command compelled the team to send Bradley to Class AAA for the foreseeable future.
A call-up seemed a ways away until Eflin — signed to a three-year, $40 million deal in the offseason — reported a back problem Monday. So they summoned Bradley, who FaceTimed his mother, Ana Mosley, with the news he’d be debuting Wednesday.
Mosley took no chances with I-75 — she left her Atlanta home at 5 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to Bally Sports Sun, and high-tailed it for St. Petersburg.
Her son did not disappoint — on his mother’s birthday, no less.
He began his career with three shutout innings, striking out All-Star third baseman Rafael Devers twice, before giving up three run-scoring hits in the fourth and fifth innings. But Bradley struck out eight and walked just one in his five innings of work.
“That’s a great present I can give her,” Bradley told Bally Sports, “though I’m sure I’ll get her something else.”
And he has a pretty good team around him.
Bayside bombers
The game was just minutes old when Randy Arozarena, taking advantage of an error by Boston shortstop Bobby Dalbec, blasted a three-run homer off Chris Sale for a 3-0 lead.
It was Tampa Bay’s major league-leading 30th home run of the season, second-most through 12 games in history. There’d be no other longballs on Wednesday, but plenty of fireworks.
“A three-run home run in the first inning?” says Bradley. “I was like alright, I can do this.”
Shortstop Wander Franco remains unstoppable, contributing a two-run double in the fourth, and doubling and scoring his second run on a sacrifice fly for a key insurance run in the eighth. Franco is now batting .340 with a .377 on-base percentage and 1.097 OPS.
History in the making?
Those Brewers and Braves are now on the clock — the only hurdle between the Rays equaling their streaks is a 1:10 p.m. ET matchup against two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber.
Yet this is very much advantage, Tampa Bay.
Kluber has a 6.48 ERA through his first two starts while Tampa Bay starter Jeffrey Springs has not given up an earned run in 13 innings this season.
Win Thursday, and the Rays are shoulder to shoulder with the ’87 Brewers and ’82 Braves. Then, it’d be on to Toronto with a chance for the best win streak to start a season since 1900.
“We’re doing something that’s pretty meaningful, impactful,” says manager Kevin Cash. “The guys should be proud of that.”
