The Tampa Bay Rays will look to keep on keeping on in Boston this weekend.
After locking up an 8-4 series-opening win on Thursday, the Rays will shoot for their eighth straight victory and 14th in 15 games when a four-game set against the Red Sox continues on Friday.
The numbers surrounding Tampa Bay’s recent run of play are impressive.
Though the Rays’ pitching staff allowed more than three runs for the first time in 14 games on Thursday, the offense pounded out 13 hits. Tampa Bay took the lead for good on Chandler Simpson’s pinch-hit two-run single in the sixth inning before adding three runs over the final two innings.
“I think we know who we are,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we understand how we can win games. I’m just really pleased. They should be pleased with themselves, the way they have gone about it and found different ways to win games.”
Simpson was the latest offensive hero despite not being in the starting lineup. By adding an insurance RBI triple in the eighth, he secured his 14th multi-hit game in the Rays’ first 37 contests.
It was also a milestone game for Yandy Diaz, who became the 20th Cuban-born player to reach 1,000 career hits. He doubled and scored on Junior Caminero’s homer in the ninth.
“The camaraderie of everybody, just in all facets of the game — pitching, defense, hitting, power, small ball, on the basepaths — it’s all coming together right now,” Simpson said.
Tampa Bay’s Jesse Scholtens (3-1, 3.18 ERA) is set to take the mound from the start on Friday after earning back-to-back wins behind then-opener Griffin Jax, who started on Thursday. Scholtens worked 5 2/3 innings and yielded five runs in his lone start on April 20 against the Cincinnati Reds.
The 32-year-old right-hander pitched three innings of one-run ball to beat the San Francisco Giants on Saturday in his most recent appearance.
Scholtens is 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA in two career appearances against the Red Sox, both as a reliever.
Boston saw its three-game winning streak — tied for its longest this season — end on Thursday.
A Jarren Duran double in the eighth marked the lone extra-base hit of the game for the Red Sox, who have also gone back-to-back games without a homer.
The day also began in a rough manner as left fielder Roman Anthony was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right hand. The 21-year-old sustained the injury on Monday against the Detroit Tigers.
“I think just getting the news back, understanding that it’s nothing very serious is the best news that we could have gotten,” Anthony said.
Connelly Early (2-2, 3.79 ERA) will start for the Red Sox on Friday. The left-hander will look to bounce back from a rough Saturday start against the Houston Astros in which he allowed five runs on six hits through four innings, tied for his shortest outing of the season.
Early’s latest start and the Thursday series opener were outlier outings amid a stretch of strong Red Sox starting pitching. The Boston rotation has surrendered three runs or fewer in nine of the past 12 games.
The Rays built a 3-0 lead off rookie Jake Bennett in the second inning with a rally that included three hits (two of them infield hits), a walk and an error.
“The damage in the second is kind of what they do,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said of the Rays. “They’re gonna get people on base, put the ball in play, they’re gonna try bunting.”
Early faced the Rays for the first time in his third major league start on Sept. 21, 2025, when he allowed three runs (two earned) in four innings and took the loss.
–Field Level Media
