Rays now 10-0! What’s the MLB record for most wins to start season?
Opening Day was a week-and-a-half ago…and the Tampa Bay Rays have not yet lost a game.
The Rays improved to 10-0 on Monday with a 1-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox, becoming just the seventh team in Major League Baseball history to open the season with 10 consecutive wins.
Brandon Lowe crushed an eighth-inning home run and Pete Fairbanks closed out the victory, matching the Rays’ third-longest winning streak in franchise history.
Sure, the Rays have mostly played teams that are not exactly expected to be playing deep into October (Tigers, Nationals, A’s). But they defeated them all in convincing fashion, winning each of their first nine games by at least four runs while posting a run-differential of plus-57.
Make that plus-58 through 10 games for the Rays, who have hit a league-leading 25 home runs and have allowed just 18 runs scored.
Add it all up, and the Rays are the first team to open the season 10-0 since 1987, needing three more wins to match the MLB record for best start.
Here’s a look at the major league teams that had the most consecutive wins to start the season.
Which baseball team has the most consecutive wins to start the season?
13 – 1982 Atlanta Braves
The Braves opened the 1982 season 13-0 under new manager Joe Torre, who had gone just 286-420 in the five previous seasons as skipper of the New York Mets. Atlanta finished the season 89-73 to win the NL West but lost in the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals.
13 – 1987 Milwaukee Brewers
The last team to open the season with 13 straight wins was the ’87 Brewers. Only problem was that less than a month later they went on a 12-game losing streak. The Brewers finished the season at 91-71, finishing third in the AL East and missing the playoffs.
11- 1981 Oakland Athletics
The A’s set the major league record at the time with 11 wins to open the season. After their first loss, they won another six straight for a 17-1 start. They finished the season, which was shortened due to a players’ strike, at 64-45 and fell in the ALCS to the New York Yankees.
10 – 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
It was a good start for the Dodgers, winning 10 straight to open the season, and an even better finish, finishing 98-55-1 and capturing the first World Series championship in franchise history.
10 – 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates matched the Dodgers’ record with 10 straight wins but did not make the playoffs after going 93-68 to finish fourth in the National League.
10 – 1966 Cleveland Indians
Of all the major league teams to win its first 10 games of the season, Cleveland proved to be the most mediocre by finishing 81-81 for a fifth-place finish in the American League.
