Rays Make MLB History With All-Lefty Lineup

The Rays will make history Friday night by playing against the Red Sox with nine left-handed hitters.

Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports

The Rays revealed an unusual and historic lineup Friday ahead of their game against the Red Sox at Tropicana Field.

With right-handed pitcher Andrew Triggs taking the mound for Boston, Rays manager Kevin Cash decided to fill out his lineup card with nine left-handed batters.

9 left-handed bats in the #Rays’ lineup tonight: pic.twitter.com/pkQMJj2eho

— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) September 11, 2020

"We knew we were left-handed heavy coming into the season and we've added a couple of left-handed hitters," Cash told MLB.com. "Just thinking about it last night, we don't know Triggs very well. We have him as a pretty big [splitter] guy. We're not even sure how deep he'll go in the game, but we know we have plenty of right-handers [so] that if they decide to go left-handed at certain points, we have options."

According to MLB.com's Andrew Simon, this marks the first time in modern baseball–since at least 1901–that a team has started nine lefties in the same game. The previous record stood at eight left-handed batters, which the majors has seen 26 times.

Tampa Bay's lineup includes no switch hitters. Although first baseman Ji-Man Choi has switch hit this season, he hasn't batted from the right side of the plate since Aug. 14.

The Rays' offense has struggled recently and scored five or fewer runs in each of their last nine games. Coming off Thursday night's 4–3 loss to the Red Sox, the club looks to bounce back into the "W" column and keep their hold atop in the American League East standings. The Rays (28–16) are 3 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Blue Jays (24–19).