Wander Franco Leads The Way As Rays Defeats Astros And Improves To 20-3

ST. PETERSBURG — The hitters showed their relentlessness and rookie starter Taj Bradley his resilience after a tough first inning on Monday as the Rays continued their remarkable run to open the season by beating defending World Series champions Astros 8-3.

As the Rays improved to 20-3, there were a few notable things:

• By winning their first 14 games at Tropicana Field, the Rays now have their longest home win streak in the modern era (since 1901), surpassing the 13 Dodgers of 2009. (The 1907 Giants lost their next 15 to home.)

• For the first time in 23 games, the Rays did not hit a home run and finished their season-opening record with 22, two more than the Mariners of 2019.

• And they became the seventh team in modern times to start at least 20-3, bettered only by the 1955 Dodgers and 1911 Tigers by 21-2.

“You look at the scoreboard and it seems like there’s a new record being broken every day,” Bradley said. “It means a lot knowing what the streak is, but now it’s like something new. Now the home record … something like that. So it’s like, “What about tomorrow?” I don’t know.”

Most impressive, however, was an amazing play from Ray’s shortstop Wander Franco, who not only rapped four hits but ran and turned a bare-handed foul ball down the left field line, which you’ll be seeing on highlight shows for a long time to come.

WANDER FRANCO THIS IS RIDICULOUS pic.twitter.com/fqSnOxRmmt
— Talking Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 25, 2023

“I couldn’t believe it myself,” Franco said of team interpreter Manny Navarro. “But I got it.”

Bradley, making his third start, put the Rays in a fast hole and allowed two runs in the span of four Houston batters.

But the Rays bounced back immediately, grabbing two in their first half to equalize. Then after Bradley conceded a leadoff homer in the third, they piled on four more to break up the game and pinned a few more to show how and why they lead the majors in runs.

Relentless seemed an apt description.

“That’s how it feels,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Every night it seems like we just put out a bunch of good bats. We make jugs work. And we get hits in time. If you do. I think that can be described as relentless.”

Franco led with four hits, including two more doubles for an MLB-11. Randy Arozarena got her going in the first with a run that scored a triple, topped with an athletic swim on a headlong slide to be safe in third place (“I’d hurt myself doing that,” Cash said) and had in fourth a sac fly. Harold Ramirez (RBI doubles in the first) and Christian Bethancourt (two-run singles in the fourth) also had big hits.

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Discover all your possibilitiesThe Rays’ Randy Arozarena hits an RBI triple against the Astros in the first inning. [ SCOTT AUDETTE | AP ]

Josh Lowe had one of the smallest but most important.

With bases loaded and two outs on back-to-back walks from Houston starter Jose Urquidy, Lowe had a good shot, fighting back from a 0-2 count – taking a ball and fouling three of them – and then hitting an infield from single to make it 4-3 , while Isaac Paredes also tried his best to avoid losing second place. That also lengthened the inning to put Bethancourt on the plate, and he made it 6-3.

“I know that’s what[batting coach Chad Mottola]talks about with all these guys, ‘Do whatever you can just to persevere,'” Cash said. “It felt like we did it really well.”

Bradley, the impressive 22-year-old, said it helped him get the two runs back after allowing Alex Bregman a first-pitch triple and a two-out homer.

“It means everything,” he said. “It’s just confidence, like, OK, I can go out there like the game is a draw again in my eyes now.”

After delivering a homer to World Series MVP Jeremy Pena to open the third, he gave up his last nine in five innings, batting six and improving to 3-0. Only two other modern-era pitchers have their first three starts won and beaten at least six: Juan Marichal (1960) and Randy Wolf (1999).

The Rays’ running support helped calm beginning pitcher Taj Bradley. [ SCOTT AUDETTE | AP ]

“When you drive, you know everything’s going well and you go into the dugout with a clear head,” Bradley said. “But (Monday) when I had to work a little harder, find out what you need to do, what needs to change. I was falling behind with the counts.”

Setting records, extending streaks, and keeping historical records can be dizzying—but fun.

“It shows that we are a good team,” Arozarena said of Navarro. “It seems like every time we play we break records that aren’t even records yet. It just happens every day.”

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