The Tampa Bay Rays became the first MLB team to begin a season with ten consecutive wins since the Milwaukee Brewers opened the 1987 campaign with a 13-0 record.
The Rays downed the Boston Red Sox 1-0 on an eighth-inning home run by second baseman Brendan Lowe.
Tampa Bay is now the seventh MLB team to begin a season at 10-0, and the first in a generation. Milwaukee shares the big-league record of 13 straight wins to begin a season with the 1982 Atlanta Braves.
Baseball podcaster Jared Carrabis, a noted Red Sox fan, was highly complimentary of Tampa Bay's accomplishment on Twitter.
Boston played Tampa Bay closer than any of the Rays' previous three opponents — Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics — this season. The game was a scoreless pitcher's duel, with Tampa Bay collecting just five hits and Boston collecting three.
However, the game turned in favor of the host Rays as Lowe clobbered a pitch 404 feet to right center field for the game's lone run. He told Bally Sports Tampa in a postgame on-field interview after the game:
"It's great to come out on top. Let's keep it rolling."
It was the third-straight game in which Lowe hit a home run. He has nine RBI over the past three games. Rays manager Kevin Cash was very complimentary of his second baseman's home run, as well as his current form, in an interview with ESPN:
"Brandon had a really good at-bat. Hung in there on some pitches, and then he got a fastball that he could get the barrel to. And we know that he can knock it out of the ballpark when he connects."
The Rays and Red Sox will meet again twice more in this series, facing off at Tropicana Field on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Tampa Bay Rays did see one streak come to an end Monday
Boston did manage to end one streak for the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday. The Rays had won each of their previous nine games by no less than four runs apiece before the Red Sox held Tampa Bay to just a one-run victory.
This means that the longest such streak of consecutive wins by four-plus runs to begin a season still belongs to the 1884 St. Louis Maroons. The Maroons played in the Union Association, the forerunner to the National League, which was founded in 1885.