Rays Starter Drew Rasmussen Pitches 6 Scoreless Innings in 6-2 Win Over Nationals

Drew Rasmussen pitched six scoreless innings for Tampa Bay on Monday night in a 6-2 win over Washington, allowing just two harmless singles and striking out seven. The Rays are 4-0 for the first time ever, and their four starters are pitching to an 0.39 earned run average, allowing just one run in 23 innings over the four wins.

The Tampa Bay Rays' starting pitching has been nearly perfect coming out of the gate, and right-hander Drew Rasmussen was the next man up on Monday night.

He was nearly perfect, too.

All he did was throw six scoreless innings, allowing just two harmless singles in the Rays' 6-2 win over the Washington Nationals. He had seven strikeouts and didn't walk anyone in the Rays' fourth straight win to open the season. 

No Tampa Bay has ever done that in their 25-plus years of existence, and Rasmussen was a big reason why, throwing 50 of 66 pitches for strikes and never being threatened.

Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen pitched six scoreless innings on Monday, allowing just two hits in the Rays' 6-2 win at Washington. (USA TODAY Sports)

The Rays had won three straight to open a season before — in 2002, 2012 and 2022 — but had never made it to four. They did that Monday in their first road game of the season after sweeping Detroit in Tropicana Field last weekend.

“Anytime you do a first in this organization, there’s been a lot of winning teams here, so we’ve got to take that and have some pride in that,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “(Rasmussen's) stuff was pretty electric.''

So far, Tampa Bay's four starters — Shane McClanahan, Zach Eflin, Jeffrey Springs and Rasmussen — have pitched 23 innings and allowed just one run and nine hits. They've struck out 30 batters and walked only three. Those are epic numbers.

According to the ESPN Stats & Info folks, the Rays are just the third team since earned runs became a stat with a sub-1.00 ERA and at least 30 strikeouts through the first four games, joining the 1978 California (now Los Angeles) Angels and 1991 Chicago White Sox. 

With Drew Rasmussen's day done, Tampa Bay's starters now have a 0.39 ERA through 4 games.

They're just the 3rd team since earned runs became official whose starters had a sub-1.00 ERA and at least 30 strikeouts through 4 games of a season (1978 Angels & 1991 White Sox). pic.twitter.com/6qwQBJZMOr

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 4, 2023

The Rays have outscored opponents 27-5 so far. The five runs allowed overall through four games are the fewest by any team through four games since the San Diego Padres did it in 2019. It's the best defensive start in Rays history.

Tampa Bay's offense continues to rake too, with Luke Raley leading the way on Monday night with two home runs. The defense was solid, too, with Rasmussen making his own web gem with a behind-the-back stop. Here's the highlight in the embedded tweet.

An apparent perk of being a dad is eyes in the back of your head pic.twitter.com/gl1CNNDWlt

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 4, 2023

Here's what Rasmussen, who touched 97 mph on the radar gun several times and topped out at 97.7 mph, said after the game, per the Tampa Bay Times and MLB.com:

— on getting ahead early in counts

“Just getting ahead early and then expanding with two strikes. I try to be as efficient as possible and fill it up to the best of my abilities, and we were able to do that.”

— on the talent in Tampa Bay's rotation

“A lot of good results are expected when you have the talent that we do,” Rasmussen said. “So the start we’ve gotten off to so far has been incredible, and we’re in a really good spot right now.”

— on Rays starting season 4-0

“If you can do something positive for the first time in franchise history, that's always a good thing. We're swinging it well, we're defending it well and we're pitching it well. I think when we can control those things, we're going to be a tough team to beat.”

— on having good control of all five pitches

“I thought I did a pretty good job of throwing everything over the plate and then, with two strikes, expanding with it. (The Rays' coaching staff) never asked me to do anything they didn't think I was capable of accomplishing. I thought today was a pretty good indicator of what could happen for the remainder of this year.”

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