The 2007 Devil Rays finished the year 30 games below .500 and posted their 10th losing season in as many years of existence (it was also the ninth time in those 10 seasons the club had failed to reach even 70 victories). Pretty bleak, for certain. But on September 5 that year, the team hummed like one built to cruise past 100 wins. That evening: every starter had a hit; every starter but one (ninth place hitter Josh Wilson) had at least one hit, one run scored and one RBI; Wilson led the team with four hits; batting third, Carlos Peña drove in seven. From the very top to the very bottom, the bats were alive and thanks to Andy Sonnanstine and three relievers, didn’t need to show out with so much force. By the end of it all, Tampa Bay had plated 17 runs and had held the opposition (out of respect, the victim shall remain nameless) to two.
Even as the franchise has soared into a starkly different stratum of success (from 2008 through the present, the Rays own the AL’s third best winning percentage, behind the Yankees and Astros), they have never been able to topple that ’07 single-game dominance: that run differential of 15 remains unsurpassed.
Yandy Díaz opened the first with a home run and the rest of the Rays really never rested after, trouncing the Red Sox, 16-1.
~ Díaz has 18 homers to lead off the game (all with Tampa Bay) and now has two in as many days. Those 18 are more than double the tally for any other player with the franchise, as B.J./Melvin Upton amassed eight.
~While Tampa couldn’t quite match its single-game best for runs against Boston (the high of 17 came in 2020), the win by 15 runs did establish a new benchmark. The old one – 13 – came in a shutout in 2009. Against all opponents, this 15-run margin of victory ties for Tampa Bay’s best, first done in 2007 and then matched in 2014.
~Every Rays starter scored at least one run and had at least one RBI. It’s the second time the club has been able to make that statement, after a 15-4 win against Seattle in 2023 witnessed this thoroughness.
~Five Rays starters had at least two runs, two hits and two RBI. Before this win, this had never happened for the franchise. Dating back to 1901, the high mark for this sort of pull from the box score stands at seven, accomplished six times.
Since 1901: 7 Starters With 2+ Runs, 2+ RBI, 2+ Hits
Giants on June 9, 1901
Phillies on May 15, 1911
Giants on July 11, 1931
Phillies on June 11, 1985
Rangers on August 22, 2007
Blue Jays on July 22, 2022
~Shane Baz offered some fireworks of his own, fanning 11 in his six innings. The Rays’ righty authored the 25th line in franchise history that featured at least 11 strikeouts and no walks (it’s the first time he’s put his signature on this collection). Chris Archer has seven of the 25, the most.
Fernando Tatis, Jr. erupted for a pair of homers in the Padres’ 10-4 win over the Cubs. The 26-year-old is slashing .361/.429/.672, all as San Diego’s leadoff hitter. The 1.101 OPS while batting leadoff would be – using a minimum of 400 PA – the best in the modern era, as Mookie Betts (1.083 in 2018) currently holds the belt. This makes for a good excuse to go through each spot in the order and identify the highest OPS since 1901 (again, with a min. of 400 plate appearances in that slot).
| Batting ... | OPS | Player | Year |
| First | 1.018 | Mookie Betts | 2018 |
| Second | 1.111 | Christian Yelich | 2019 |
| Third | 1.370 | Barry Bonds | 2001 |
| Fourth | 1.427 | Babe Ruth | 1920 |
| Fifth | 1.219 | Jimmie Foxx | 1932 |
| Sixth | 1.015 | Riggs Stephenson | 1929 |
| Seventh | 1.061 | Gabby Hartnett | 1930 |
| Eighth | .888 | Wally Schang | 1921 |
| Ninth | .782 | Kevin Elster | 1996 |
Batting first and second, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts combined to go 5-for-9 with two home runs, a double and a walk in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win. For the season, Dodgers 1-2 hitters (which is mostly, but not entirely made up of these two) have a combined line that is among the most impressive in the game; there is a trend here. In 2023, Dodgers 1-2 hitters (mostly Betts and Freddie Freeman ) posted a combined .970 OPS for the year, the best in any season for any club since 1901 (taking out the 60-game 2020 campaign). Right behind that mark – the Dodgers’ .942 in 2024, when it was principally the Betts and Ohtani show.
Austin Riley homered twice to propel Atlanta to a win. Riley has played 735 games, has homered 157 times. He’s one of four to be at (or above) that career longball level at that exact moment and to have had all his games up to that moment be with the Braves. Through his first 735 contests, Eddie Mathews had 190 home runs, with Bob Horner (168) and Ronald Acuña, Jr. (165) following. Then comes Riley. For those curious, Henry Aaron had 141.
Tarik Skubal delivered seven scoreless innings that featured nine strikeouts and no walks – this after his previous start saw him produce six innings of scoreless ball with six strikeouts and no walks. This two-start stretch, tailored to Skubal’s numbers, has two precedents in Tigers history:
Consecutive Outings With 6.0+ IP, No Runs, No Walks: Tigers from 1901-2025
1907 Ed Siever (16 IP and five strikeouts)
2023 Eduardo Rodríguez (15 IP and 16 strikeouts)
2025 Tarik Skubal (13 IP and 15 strikeouts)
Some team specific items:
~The Yankees used four home runs to reach a 4-1 win over the Royals and now have 32 longballs in 16 games. That tally at this time is the most for the franchise, eclipsing the 31 produced by the 2003 club.
~The Giants defeated the Phillies to run their record to 12-4: the club’s best 16-game start since the 2003 team opened 14-2.
The Mets defeated the Twins 5-1 to lower the club’s ERA to 2.22. Since 1998, there have been eight other teams to have their ERA so low through 16 games, including one other Mets representative:
1.79 2001 Red Sox
1.95 2002 Giants
1.99 2015 Cardinals
1.99 2020 Indians
2.08 2016 Cubs
2.08 2022 Dodgers
2.19 2002 Mets
2.19 2013 Braves
2.22 2025 Mets
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.