Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher Joins Sandy Koufax in Exclusive Club in Baseball History

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen joined an elite club in baseball history on Thursday night, one that includes just him and Sandy Koufax.

Brady Farkas

Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher Joins Sandy Koufax in Exclusive Club in Baseball History
Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher Joins Sandy Koufax in Exclusive Club in Baseball History /
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It isn't often that we type the names "Drew Rasmussen" and "Sandy Koufax" in the same sentence, but that's exactly what we're doing on Thursday night.

Rasmussen joined an exclusive club in baseball history with another great start against the New York Yankees, joining a club that includes only him and Koufax.

From the Twitter account @OptaSTATS:

Tonight marks the 4th time this year Drew Rasmussen of @RaysBaseball has thrown 5.0+ shutout innings while allowing 2 or fewer hits. He's the second MLB pitcher in the modern era to do that 4 times within his first 8 starts of a season. The other was Sandy Koufax in 1963.

The modern era refers to anything after 1900 so it's very notable that this has only been done by two pitchers.

Rasmussen went seven innings, allowing just the two hits. He walked none and stuck out seven. He lowered his season ERA to 2.62.

Rasmussen, 27, is another success of the Rays pitching development program. He made his major league debut in the COVID 2020 season with the Milwaukee Brewers but was acquired by Tampa Bay in 2021.

For his career, he's 20-10 in 83 games. He had a lifetime ERA of 2.97 and a 1.09 WHIP.

The Rays won this game, 8-2, to move to a league-best 30-9 on the season. Young outfielder Josh Lowe had five RBIs in the win. The Rays out-hit the Yankees 11-4 in the victory.

New Rays reliever Jake Diekman made his team debut. He struck out one in a scoreless eighth inning.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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