Red-hot Rays look to keep rolling vs. Red Sox

The Tampa Bay Rays will look to extend their season-opening winning streak to 12 games on Wednesday evening when they host the Boston Red Sox in the third contest of their four-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.

While pitching and power have paved the way to the Rays' 11 wins, it was the latter that stepped to the plate in Tuesday's 7-2 triumph and delivered in the Rays' 11th straight home win over the American League East rival Red Sox.

Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe homered on consecutive pitches, and Isaac Paredes and Josh Lowe also launched solo shots. Tampa Bay pushed its home-run total to 29, matching the major-league record through 11 games set by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2000.

The four-homer outburst broke open a 2-0 game and turned it into another runaway win as the Rays moved to 18-4 against Boston in the past 22 contests in the domed park.

"It sounds awesome," said Lowe, when asked about the 11-0 start. "This team's having a lot of fun right now, and we're doing what we need to do every single night. We're going to keep it rolling as long as we can."

The outfielder is batting .385 with two homers and six RBIs. He also stole his first base of the season on Tuesday.

"We're just getting good pitches to hit," Lowe said of the squad's power surge. "We're keeping it simple and staying within ourselves."

The major league record for wins to start a season is 13 by the Atlanta Braves in 1982 and the Milwaukee Brewers in 1987.

With No. 2 starter Zach Eflin (back tightness) going on the 15-day injured list Tuesday, the Rays called up No. 1 prospect Taj Bradley to make his major league debut.

The right-handed Bradley, 22, is considered the No. 18 prospect by MLB Pipeline, No. 42 by Baseball America and No. 60 by ESPN.

When Boston's Chris Sale (1-0, 11.25 ERA) returns to the mound near the town where he grew up, the veteran left-hander will look for a better start than the one in Detroit last Thursday.

After opening the game against the Tigers with eight straight balls, Sale got a talking-to during a mound visit.

He responded with three consecutive strikeouts and settled down enough to earn his first win of the season as the Red Sox recorded a 6-3 victory.

Sale, 34, credits much of his success to his relationship with the Boston coaching staff, which gave him some good advice when he returned to the dugout.

"They said something like, ‘That's an interesting strategy,'" Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "He was close to the strike zone, just missing. He made some adjustments throughout."

Boston's staff desperately need a return to form by Sale, who has looked shaky in his first two outings.

Across eight innings against the Baltimore Orioles and Detroit, the lanky lefty has given up 11 hits and 10 runs with 13 strikeouts and five walks. He also has surrendered four homers.

Sale owns a 10-6 mark and a 2.82 ERA in 23 career appearances (21 starts) against Tampa Bay. The seven-time All-Star has allowed 99 hits in 137 innings to go with a whopping 193 strikeouts.