A historic start to the 2023 season now includes a home run record for the Tampa Bay Rays. Saturday afternoon against the Chicago White Sox (GameTracker), Randy Arozarena swatted a first inning two-run home run against AL Cy Young runner-up Dylan Cease at Tropicana Field, giving Tampa a home run in all 21 games this year. That's a new record to begin the season.
Here is Arozarena's record-setting dinger:
Arozarena's homer broke a tie with the 2019 Seattle Mariners, who hit a home run in each of their first 20 games. Cleveland is third on that list with a 14-game homer streak to begin the 2002 season, so the 2023 Rays and 2019 Mariners are far ahead of the pack.
Dating back to last season, the Rays have hit a home run in 22 consecutive games, a new franchise record. The previous record was 21 games spanning the 2015-16 seasons. This year's 21-game streak is the longest in franchise history in a single season, easily eclipsing the previous record (17 games in 2017).
The all-time record is 31 straight games with a home run by the 2019 New York Yankees. The Rays are one of 17 teams all-time to hit a home run in 22 straight games (dating back to last season). As a reminder, 2019 was the year of the home run. Several league home run records were broken that year, so the 2019 Yankees and 2019 Mariners had their thumb on the scale a bit.
The Rays entered play Saturday with an MLB-best 17-3 record and plus-84 run differential. They won a modern record-tying 13 games to begin the season. Tampa's 45 home runs are the most in baseball, well ahead of the second place Los Angeles Dodgers and their 36 homers.
