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The Rays’ Taylor Walls, right, successfully steals second base against the Yankees earlier this season. Tampa Bay has employed under-utilized skills such as base-stealing, contact plays and more this season. (Jefferee Woo\/Tampa Bay Times)<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 The Rays typically find their edge by being ahead of the game.<\/p>\n
Over the last 20 years, from the owner through the front office and field staff, to the research and development analysts, they\u2019ve tried to forecast and figure out what the next big advantage might be.<\/p>\n
Often, they\u2019d adopt an idea, other teams would scoff initially and then scramble to catch on and catch up. As that new thing became commonplace, the Rays would seek another.<\/p>\n
Most prominent of those was the opener pitching strategy, which, starting in May 2018, literally changed how the game was played.<\/p>\n
The Rays were also at the forefront of other innovations and\/or adjustments, such as defensive shifts, lineup platoons, matchup bullpens, star-quality super-utility players and putting a numbers nerd (technically a process and analytics coach) in the dugout.<\/p>\n
But throughout the Rays\u2019 successful opening three weeks of this season, there has been a retro theme.<\/p>\n
Specifically, an offense that plays the old-school way \u2014 forcing the action by putting the ball in play, running wild on the bases, bunting early and often, and keeping pressure on the defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely throwback,\u201d hitting coach Chad Mottola said. \u201cBut it\u2019s their skill sets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite playing home games last season at hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field, the Rays ranked below league average in most key offensive categories.<\/p>\n
Moving back to notably pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field for this season seemed likely to make things worse.<\/p>\n
But a funny thing happened on the way to spring training: A massive roster makeover following back-to-back losing seasons changed the dynamic of the lineup.<\/p>\n
Gone were some players who struck out a lot and often produced empty at-bats. In were some guys who made contact, grinded through tough matchups, ran well and played team-first, situational baseball.<\/p>\n
Also, they turned an improved Chandler Simpson loose on the world, and he has been a tempo-setting, momentum grabbing, game-changing demon.<\/p>\n
All of which allowed the coaching staff to focus on a team-wide attack that took advantage of their speed and skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve always done is work with guys individually to their strengths,\u201d Mottola said. \u201cThe team we assembled this year is a contact team, so it\u2019s been enjoyable the way they\u2019ve grinded out at-bats in situations \u2014 leaning on each other, accepting the walk, accepting the bunt, making things happen with small ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also give Chandler a lot of credit for kind of setting the tone, and guys kind of see how he\u2019s creating things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team-first approach has shown itself in a number of ways, and through some interesting numbers.<\/p>\n
The Rays:<\/p>\n
Were among the best in the majors in putting the ball in play, with the top contact rate (80.1%) and lowest strikeout rate (18.2%). And they ranked second in scoring runners from third base (61.2%).<\/p>\n
Have made bunting \u2014 once the bane of some analytically savvy teams, as it gave away one of the precious 27 outs \u2014 a key part of their attack. Their nine sacrifice bunts, with a 75% conversion rate, and six bunt hits were tops or tied in the majors and included several squeeze bunts that scored runs and led to wins.<\/p>\n
Have used their ample speed well, leading the majors in infield hits (30) while ranking near the top in steals (21) and other advantage-gaining plays, such as going from first to third (or home) on a single (19).<\/p>\n
In doing all that, they put immense pressure on pitchers and defenses, which leads to errors, misplays and mounting frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat peskiness, man, it\u2019s not fun for a pitcher when there\u2019s constant guys on base and guys are stealing,\u201d veteran starter Nick Martinez said.<\/p>\n
The Rays\u2019 way also has led some teams to adjust their positioning, which can open up other holes to be exploited.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of athleticism \u2014 they\u2019re going to bunt, they\u2019re going to steal, especially with Simpson being at the top, adding (Cedric) Mullins,\u201d Pirates manager Don Kelly said before the start of a weekend series against the Rays.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they bring a different element that you\u2019ve got to prepare for and talk about and be ready to defend against.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Rays feel they have enough power to occasionally flex their muscles \u2014 such as hitting a season-high-matching three homers in a win against the White Sox \u2014 they seem to greatly enjoy the offensive diversity of also being able to play small ball the old-fashioned way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s baseball right there,\u201d said All-Star third baseman Junior Caminero. \u201cWe hit, we run, we bunt, we have power. We have everything this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added outfielder Jake Fraley, \u201cIt\u2019s just a dynamic lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shows, as they have won an AL-leading five games without hitting a home run \u2014 including three in a row during a six-game winning streak that ended Friday \u2014 and scored five or more runs without a homer an MLB-best five times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting. That\u2019s a very special style of play,\u201d veteran designated hitter Yandy Diaz said via team interpreter Kevin Vera. \u201cWe\u2019re not necessarily a team that has a ton of, quote, unquote, \u2018power,\u2019 but that\u2019s our style of play, and so we\u2019ve just got to keep doing that, because that\u2019s what\u2019s worked for us. That\u2019s our brand, just that small ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays’ Taylor Walls, right, successfully steals second base against the Yankees earlier this season. Tampa Bay has employed under-utilized skills such as base-stealing, contact plays and more this season. (Jefferee Woo\/Tampa Bay Times)<\/p>\n
Diaz, who last dropped a sacrifice bunt at Triple A in 2018, said \u201cthat\u2019s the style of baseball that I like to watch, I like to play. Just get guys on, move them over and hopefully score some runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doing the physical things, such as bunting against the triple-digit velocities and nasty breaking pitches in today\u2019s game, is one important element in their new style of play.<\/p>\n
Another is getting the players \u2014 some in contract years, others trying to establish themselves as big-leaguers \u2014 to buy into a team-first approach and give themselves up when warranted, such as with a runner on third.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, that\u2019s not your at-bat,\u201d infielder\/outfielder Richie Palacios said. \u201cIt\u2019s the team\u2019s at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bottom line, what they\u2019ve been doing has been working.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve liked the way that we are finding ways to score runs,\u201d manager Kevin Cash said. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s about scoring runs and preventing them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Rays typically find their edge by being ahead of the game. Over the last 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,76070,185,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-679808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-social-sports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116437627700272934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}