Fifteen sweeps already, and a 16th sitting right there
No team in baseball has swept more series than Tampa Bay this year. Fifteen. Beat the Athletics on Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg and the Rays make it sixteen.
They have been rolling for a while. Houston got swept last weekend, and the homestand that followed has produced five wins in five. Wednesday was tighter than the rest: four runs in the opening two innings, then a long afternoon of holding on for a 4-3 finish and a third straight series win.
At 92-59, Tampa Bay is 33 games over .500, its high-water mark of the season. The Yankees sit at 88-64, four and a half games back in the American League East.
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Two ten-thousandths off the batting title
Kevin Cash has the kind of problem other managers dream about. “We’ve got two elite hitters in the average race,” the Rays manager said.
Chandler Simpson is hitting .3098 after picking up two more knocks on Wednesday. Yordan Alvarez leads the American League at .3100. That is a gap of two ten-thousandths of a point with a fortnight to play.
Yandy Diaz has gone cold and dropped to .297. Jonny DeLuca drove in the first run of Wednesday’s game and is now at 44 RBIs, a career best.
One number explains this season better than the win total does: 24-14 in one-run games. Those are the games that win divisions over six months. Nobody remembers the blowouts by the following Tuesday.
Jeffrey Springs walks back into the building that made him
Drew Rasmussen (14-5, 2.81 ERA) takes the ball for Tampa Bay, and he has owned this opponent: 4-0 with a 2.67 ERA across six appearances. Both of his September starts went seven innings and gave up a single run, without a decision either time.
Springs (4-13, 5.93) is the other story. The left-hander arrived in Tampa Bay in 2021 and was rebuilt there, turned from a reliever into a starter. His 2022 remains the peak: 9-5, a 2.46 ERA, a 1.07 WHIP. Then Tommy John surgery ended his 2023 in April, three starts into a run where he was carrying a 0.56 ERA.
Oakland traded for him in December 2024, and the past year has been rough. Thirteen consecutive losing decisions between April 19 and August 30, spread over 21 starts. The streak finally broke on September 5 in Seattle with seven scoreless innings and two hits allowed. His record against the Rays, though, still reads 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA.
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