It's way too early for scoreboard watching - and yet the age-old Yankee-Red Sox hostilities at Fenway this weekend have become tempered by the Tampa Bay Rays' scary surge out of the AL East gate.
As one veteran American League exec told me in the spring: "The Rays have so much talent, all those high-ceiling, high-draft choice guys. If they ever all put it together at the same time, they could be awesome. The problem is that almost never happens and then they
start breaking it up - which is what will likely happen with the Rays. The clock is ticking for them."
Apparently, the Rays are hearing it. In getting off to a best-in-baseball 22-7 start, their pitchers were leading the American League in ERA and shutouts along with the fewest walks, while their hitters were leading the league in scoring. All five of their 20-something starters had ERAs under 3.00 and eight of their regulars had double-figure RBI totals.
Their 13-1 road record matched the second-best road start of the expansion era (1961), second only to the 1984 Tigers, who got off to a 17-0 start away from home. The Rays also led the majors in both runs scored (164) and the AL fewest runs allowed (86) for a differential of 77, the best by an AL team after 28 games since the 2003 Yankees.
"We feel like we're playing our game and winning the way we want to win," Carl Crawford told the St. Petersburg Times "I know it looks like we're off to a fast start, but we honestly feel like we can continue to do this because this is just the way we play."
Ominous words for the Yankees and Red Sox.
Because Crawford and Carlos Pena are pending free agents, Maddon knows his team needs to stay in the race. All spring, speculation persisted that the Rays would seek to trade one or both of them at the trading deadline if it looked like another season of the Yankees and Red Sox having a hammer lock on the division. A bad start, Maddon said, would only increase the Crawford-Pena distraction.
Crawford in particular is off to a career season, hitting .327 with a .392 OBP, as he is poised to cash in.
The Rays are taking a different approach at the plate this year under new hitting coach Derek Shelton, and led the majors in batting with runners in scoring position (82-for-254, .323).
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