Shane Baz Helps Makes More History For Tampa Bay in 7-0 Rout of Pittsburgh

TAMPA, Fla. — When a Tampa Bay Rays pitcher makes history, that's usually saying something pretty special considering all the great arms they've had through the years.

Shane Baz did it anyway on Tuesday night. The Rays' No. 5 starter pitched six scoreless innings, striking out 10 with no walks in their 7-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had media relations folks scrambling to find all the superlatives after the Rays moved to 4-1 on the season, and into first place in the American League East, a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees.

Their five starting pitchers have allowed only one walk thus far, with 36 strikeouts. The Rays rotation has a 1.24 ERA through the first loop around the order.

Look at all these other firsts, too:

• The Rays have recorded a 1.60 ERA — allowing just eight earned runs in 45 innings — their lowest through five games in franchise history,

• The Rays have not issued a walk in four consecutive games, becoming the first major-league team to do so since the Oakland Athletics from Sept. 25-28, 2014. Since 1901, they are the just the 26th team to record four consecutive walk-free games.
  

• The Rays have 56 strikeouts to only three walks, becoming the first team since at least 1901 with 54 strikeouts or more and three or few walks in their first five games of a season. The 2019 Astros (53 K's, 3 walks) are the next closest team.
  

• The Rays pitching staff has allowed eight earned runs and three walks 3to begin the year, and both marks are the fewest in franchise history through five games.

• The Rays are only the second staff since earned runs became official in 1913 to record eight earned runs or fewer and three walks or fewer over their first five games of a season (the 1920 Pirates were the other.) Tampa Bay's previous team low for walks through five games was nine in 2023.

• Tampa Bay starters have gone five innings or more while surrendering two runs or fewer and one walk or fewer in each of their first five games, becoming the fifth team since at least 1901 to accomplish the feat. The Boston Red Sox also did it in 2024.

• The Rays shut out the Pirates for the first time in club history.

• The Rays won their ninth straight home game over the Pirates dating back to June 25, 2014, the longest home winning streak over a National League opponent in franchise history.

Baz, who game to the Rays from the Pirates in the now infamous Chris Archer trade that also netted Tampa Bay Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows, topped 100 mph with his fastball, and his breaking ball was nasty. He got eight strikeouts on curveballs.

“I could kind of tell early that the off-speed was working how I wanted, and I was able to throw them all for a strike,” Baz said. “So that just made it a lot easier.”

Here's what Rays starters have done so far:

Their second round of starts begin on Wednesday when Pepiot takes that mound against Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes. It's an afternoon game at starts at 1:10 p.m. ET.