By admin 
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Let’s go back in time. Not too far. You don’t even need to turn a calendar page.
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Back on Sept. 7, Shane McClanahan had just gone back on the injured list with forearm tightness. Griffin Jax had recently been hammered in his first start coming off the injured list. And Freddy Peralta was barely a month removed from his disastrous stint with the Mets.
Fair to say that confidence in Tampa Bay’s starting rotation was not at high tide.
And yet look at the starters now.
After Drew Rasmussen’s impressive performance in a 10-1 win against the Athletics on Thursday, the rotation has had nine consecutive starts with at least five innings pitched while allowing two runs or fewer. It’s tied for the second-longest streak in Rays history and the best in more than 12 years.
It has also led to back-to-back sweeps of AL West teams at Tropicana Field and increased Tampa Bay’s lead over the Yankees to five games with 10 to play. Tampa Bay’s magic number to clinch the division is six, which includes eliminating the possibility of losing a tiebreaker with the Yankees.
The victory gave the Rays a franchise-record 16 sweeps on the season. At 6-0 against the Athletics in 2026, it was also just the second time in team history that Tampa Bay went undefeated against an AL opponent in a season series. The only other time was when they went 7-0 against Kansas City in 2018.
Read more Big fourth inning propels Rays to sweep of Athletics
With the way the pitching staff has been going, the Rays haven’t needed a lot of offense. And they got more than enough in the fourth inning Thursday.
Facing former Ray Jeffrey Springs, the Rays went down quietly in the first three innings before Jonathan Aranda led off the fourth with a double. The Rays followed with two walks, three hits and a hit-by-pitch to put six runs on the board.
Chandler Simpson, who is making a bid to win the AL batting crown, delivered the big blow with a bases-loaded single. Richie Palacios also had a two-run double, and Taylor Walls drove in a runner from third with a bunt single.
With a comfortable lead, Rasmussen threw one more inning of shutout ball in the fifth before turning it over to the bullpen. Casey Legumina, Brody Hopkins, Steven Matz and Alex Cook threw four innings of one-run ball, which lowered the staff’s ERA to a major league-leading 2.03 over the past nine games.
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