NEW YORK -- Momentum has been hard to come by for the Rays so far this season.
They started the season 4-1 then lost their next four games. They sandwiched a five-game winning streak between a 1-6 stretch and a four-game skid. They ended that frustrating stretch by coming back to win Saturday’s game against the Yankees then jumping out to an early lead Sunday afternoon and winning the series finale, 7-5.
The Rays have won three of their past four series, and this was their first series victory at Yankee Stadium since July 31-Aug. 2, 2023. Yet they flew home Sunday night with a record of 16-18, reflecting the overall inconsistency of these past five weeks but perhaps not fully representing the optimism they feel about what they can do over the next five months.
“Disappointed with the record, but see a lot of signs underneath that point to this group being much more capable than [their current record],” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “And it's up to them to go out and prove it, but we’ve got to stay behind them, stay supportive and keep working.
“A train leaving the station, it takes a while to get up to speed, but once it gets going, there's a lot of momentum. That’s how we need to play this year.”
Evaluating the Rays’ performance before Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium, Neander said it’s still early enough in the season for there to be “a lot of noise” in both individual players’ statistics and the team’s results.
But club officials entered the season expecting to have a top 10 pitching staff aided by a capable defense and an offense -- built around athletic players making contact more than pure power -- that could score just enough.
So far, that’s more or less what they’ve been. Their pitching staff’s 3.56 ERA ranked eighth in the Majors at the end of Sunday’s game. Their defense has been the best in baseball, according to defensive runs saved. Their lineup has been the issue, producing three runs or fewer in 18 of their 34 games so far.
“When we're going through a stretch where it's not clicking, it feels probably the way it does here recently,” Neander said. “Other times, when you get the situational hits, it's going to feel like that road trip. But we've just got to stay at it and try to build on those positive outcomes as time goes along here.”
But when the Rays have found enough run support, as they did Saturday and Sunday and throughout their 5-1 trip to Arizona and San Diego, they’re playing as expected. They are 13-3 when scoring at least four runs and undefeated (12-0) when scoring at least five.
“A little sporadic, not as consistent as we want. We know it's in there, and we know what this team is capable of,” shortstop Taylor Walls said Sunday. “There's no question, I think especially within ourselves, of what we're capable of doing.
“I think it's just at this point [about] just trying to provide some consistency, not getting too high on the highs, too low on the lows, and just coming in every day ready to work.”
Neander said the Rays expected to learn a lot about this year’s team over the first two months of the season, when the early noise fades and what’s real becomes more evident. They’re also likely to look different in a few months than they do now.
Ace Shane McClanahan, free-agent addition Ha-Seong Kim, four key outfielders and a handful of other contributors are on the injured list. The Rays received a massive lift from rookies like Kameron Misner, Chandler Simpson and Jake Mangum, but they’re still waiting for veterans like Yandy Díaz and Brandon Lowe -- along with rising star Junior Caminero -- to consistently find their form.
But Neander made an interesting comparison between this year’s club and the 2018 team that struggled early, hung around .500 well into August then reeled off a 28-11 finish to win 90 games overall.
Neander said this year’s team has a similar level of cohesiveness, shrugging off the challenges of its ballpark situation and coming together as a group with excellent chemistry. Could it get hot like that team did, too?
“I do believe this is a team that has a chance to build, pick up steam as the year progresses – not just by getting guys back [from the injured list], but the growth of some younger players,” Neander said. “The competitive makeup of the group is really good. This is a group that seems like they have come together exceptionally well. I think that's going to be important when you talk about building steam as the year goes on.”