By Zachary McMahon-
The Tampa Bay Rays hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at Steinbrenner Stadium in Tampa Bay, FL on Tuesday night. The Rays opened the three-game series with a 6-1 victory over the Pirates, and are in a three-game winning streak after winning against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.
Shane Baz made his first start of 2025, as he pitched six innings, allowing seven hits, didn’t have any walks or earned runs, and struck out a career high of 10 batters.
Thomas Harrington made his major league debut as he started on the mound for the Bucs, he pitched four innings, allowing seven hits, and six earned runs and four walks. He struck out just two batters.
In his third major league game, Jake Magnum went 3-for-4, as he started with a two-run double, and had two singles. This was after he went 4-for-4 in his second major league game.
Kameron Misner continued the first inning with a single, and then brought home Magnum on an error by O’Neil Cruz, and Misner went to second on the error. After Danny Jansen walked, Taylor Walls ended the inning as he was struck out by Harrington, and as the team almost went around in the first inning and they scored three runs to open the game.
Magnum scored again on a sacrifice fly by Misner in the third, and then Brandon Lowe hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 6-0.
Baz struck out four out of his last five batters before he was relieved by Mason Englert who pitched the next two innings, and then Mason Montgomery pitched the ninth, as he struck out three batters: Joey Bart, Tommy Pham, and Ke’Bryan Hayes, while Andrew McCutchen hit a pinch hit single, as he was in for Enmanuel Valdez, as the Rays won 7-0 over the Pirates.
The Rays pitching staff had 15 strikeouts, allowed no walks and runs in the game. This is the fifth time that they had 15+ strikeouts while having no walks or earned runs. The last time that happened was in 2019, in a 13-inning game, they pitched 24 strikeouts while allowing no walks and no runs, in a 1-0 shutout against the Detroit Tigers. It last happened in a nine-inning game in 2017, when they had 18 strikeouts against the Baltimore Orioles.
Meanwhile, it was the third time in MLB history since 1901 that a team had nine or more hits, but did not get walked, didn’t score a single run and were struck out 15+ times. The Bucs did it last season in a game against the San Diego Padres, and in 2022 the Washington Nationals did it while being strick out 17 times. All nine hits were singles for the Pirates.
The Rays had not allowed a walk in the last four games, as they’re the first major league team to do this since the Oakland Athletics who did it from Sept. 25-28, 2014, and they’re the 26th team to accomplish this.
Magnum has tied the second most hits in his first three career games in Rays history with seven hits. He tied Akinori Iwamura who did it from April 2-6, 2007 and he’s behind Delmon Young who had eight from Aug. 29-31, 2006. Magnum had his third stolen bases in the third inning, as he’s the second MLB player to have seven or more hits and three or more stolen bases in the first three games of a career, as Frank Dillon had eight hits and four stolen bases in 1901 with the Detroit Tigers.
Lowe’s homer had tied Aubrey Huff for third most homers in Rays history with his 128th homer.
Bryan Reynolds and Hayes each had two hits for the Bucs, as Reynolds was in his 800th MLB career game, and the Rays left seven runners on base for the Bucs.
The series finale will be on Wednesday at 1:10 pm first pitch with Paul Skenes going up against Ryan Pepiot.
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