Though Not Threatening Joe DiMaggio’s Record, A Few Tampa Bay Rays Have Hitting Streaks

A 13-game hitting streak is not going to halt traffic on N. Dale Mabry Highway beyond the right field wall of Steinbrenner Field. A blinding downpour that briefly halted play Sunday afternoon against the visiting Detroit Tigers did the trick.

Yet, Yandy Diaz and the Rays’ offense have been motoring along at a rapid clip during a 22-9 run that has improved their overall mark from 21-26 to 43-35 and within 2.5 games of the Yankees in the American League East. While the pitching has mostly been at its typical high standard, the offense had been performing at a mega-watt level. That included scoring at least seven runs in a nine-game stretch and 13 of 26 prior to Sunday’s 9-3 loss to the Tigers. Tampa Bay still took two of three from the team with MLB’s best record thanks to scoring 22 runs in the first two games, including four in the first inning of each of the first two games of the series.

The lineup top to bottom has been producing at an extremely consistent rate that, not surprisingly, has resulted in a few hitting streaks. The streaks may be modest, for sure, but they underscore how hot the bats have been of late. It is such production that has critical to the Rays’ current run.

Here are the club’s active hitting streaks heading into their series opener at Kansas City on Tuesday evening.

Yandy Diaz, 13

Diaz is the only player in the team’s 27 previous seasons to piece together a hitting streak as long as 20 games when he hit safely in exactly that many in a row last season. His current 13-gamer is highlighted by an active streak of five multi-hit performances and 10 such games during the streak. The 2023 American League batting champ is hitting .464 (26-for-56) with four homers, three doubles, a triple and 10 RBI in the 13 games. Should Diaz hit safely in K.C. on Tuesday night, he will equal the second-longest streak of his career.

Brandon Lowe, 11

The second baseman’s streak was kept alive at eight games against the Orioles last Thursday evening when his grounder hit teammate Danny Jansen between first and second as the latter attempted to get out of the way. It was the only hit of the game for Lowe, who had a career-long 13-game streak in May. When adding his current run, during which he is hitting .344 (17-for-44), with that from May, he has hit safely in 32 of 37 (.338, 10 HRs) to raise his average from .190 and OPS from .550 to .264/.775.

Jake Mangum, 10

Watch the 29-year-old rookie motor out of the batter’s box from either side and it is easy to understand how any batted ball in the infield can result in a base hit. Mangum, who has 14 infield singles, is hitting .375 (15-for-40) with eight RBI in the 10 games. Something really eye-opening with Mangum this season is that he is hitting .465 (20-for-43) and all 23 of his RBI with runners in scoring position.

Jonathan Aranda, 8

No, the first baseman has yet to reach double digits for the first time in his career. Still, it is a nice little streak during which he is hitting .387 (12-for-31) to lift his average to .325, good for fourth in the American League and fifth in MLB as the week began. In the larger picture of Aranda’s first full season in the big leagues is that he is third in the majors behind Aaron Judge and Will Smith with a .411 on base percentage and is hitting .349 with runners in scoring position, good for ninth in the junior circuit.