The Tampa Bay Rays improved to 18-3 on Saturday afternoon with a walk-off win against the Chicago White Sox. Randy Arozarena was the star of the game, driving in all four of the Rays’ runs in the 4-3 win, including a record-setting two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
That home run gave the Rays a home run in each of their first 21 games of the season, breaking the previous record that was held by the 2019 Seattle Mariners for homering in their first 20 games of the season.
Not only have the Rays homered in each of their first 21 games, they have already clubbed 46 home runs going into Sunday’s game.
Only one other team in the league (the Los Angeles Dodgers) has hit at least 40 home runs. The San Francisco Giants are the only other team that has hit more than 30 home runs.
That means the gap between the Rays (46 home runs),and Giants (32 home runs), the first and third place teams in home runs, is the same as the gap between the Giants in third place and the 25th place Arizona Diamondbacks (18 home runs),
In other words, the Rays are absolutely clobbering the ball.
Along with the home runs, the Rays also remain perfect at home going into Sunday’s game with a 12-0 record.
The 18-3 overall record is the best start in the league since the 2003 New York Yankees.
Their plus-85 run differential is also 28 runs better than the next closest team, while they are the only team that has a divisional lead of more than 2.5 games over a second place team, already owning a 4.5 games lead.
