It's a long season but a great start like this in a really hard division is a huge win for them

Some crazy good pythag starts. As noted, the Rays are not just 7-0, they are winning easily with a +35 differential already, scoring 7.5 R and giving up 2.5 R. A 7-0 start with a couple of lucky wins is one thing, this is sheer dominance.

The Brewers are 6-1, +26 and have given up just 16 runs (2 fewer than the Rays). The Dodgers are on the "unlucky" side at just 5-3 but are +25. Atlanta is a pedestrian 6-2 and +18 but 6 of their 8 games have been on the road.

The Rays obviously helped by a start against Det, Nats and A's. Atlanta got the Nats but then the Cards and Padres. Brewers started with the Cubs then swept the Mets and now have the Cards. The Dodgers with a pretty easy start of DBacks, Rox now DBacks again. Meanwhile, appearing twice on that list, the Cards have been dumped into last place at 2-5.

Today they tacked on a 11-0 win vs the A's making all of those stats even more ridiculous. Four guys in today's lineup finished the day with an OPS over 1000. Only C Mejia had an OPS below 800 (but with a 353 OBP).

It’s still quite early, although every win helps. The Rays haven’t played any games within the AL East or against teams with better than a .500 record, so some caution may be advisable.

It’s still quite early, although every win helps. The Rays haven’t played any games within the AL East or against teams with better than a .500 record, so some caution may be advisable.

If you start 9-0, it's very difficult to have played a team with an above .500 record - any other team would have had to go at least 5-1 in the games they didn't play against the 9-0 team (assuming the 9-0 start came in three game series).

Maybe the better way to put this is that of all the teams the Rays have played, the one with the best 2022 record was Detroit, which went 66-96.

The Rays may be as fearsome as they've looked, but the combined Pythag record of the Tigers, Nats and A's is 5-22. Let's see what they do against a few more competitive teams, starting with the Red Sox.

Meanwhile the A's are a complete train wreck, with a 1-8 Pythag. I wonder if it's possible that they could threaten the 1916 Connie Mack A's .235 winning percentage. They're just lucky they're not in the AL East.

Isn't this the first year of the new balanced schedule?

Anyway, their run differential is a staggering +57. Team OPS is 967, 173 OPS+. :-) It might well be the easiest schedule of any 9-game streak in the last 50 years but it is one hell of a performance.

Beginning tonight they've got 7 games in 7 days, 4 against the Red Sox and 3 in Toronto. That should give us a better idea of what their real strength is.

Here's the most impressive thing about the Rays: Their $73,184,811 payroll is 28th of 30 teams, exceeding only the Orioles and the A's. It's $204M less than the Yankees, and $280M less than the Mets.