Christian Bethancourt

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Luke Raley admitted Monday that a recent rant on a New York sports radio station questioning the legitimacy of his team's hot start to the season is serving as motivation for the club."Everyone gets the message ... That video, it hit us", Raley said, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. "We wanted to own it Keep doubting us; we're going to come out and keep playing good baseball."Evan Roberts, a host at WFAN 660 in New York City, took to the airwaves two weeks ago and said there was "something suspicious" about Tampa Bay's 28-7 record at the time. Something fishy is happening in Tampa pic.twitter.com/23RM7fQz1w Evan Roberts (@EvanRobertsWFAN) May 9, 2023 Roberts also questioned how certain players like Christian Bethancourt and Taylor Walls were producing the best numbers of their careers.The Rays enter play Monday with a 34-14 record and lead the Baltimore Orioles by 2.5 games for first place in the AL East. Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Yandy D az belted a three-run homer and Christian Bethancourt and Harold Ramirez added solo jacks to power the Rays to an 8-4 win

The Tampa Bay Rays extended their lead over the Milwaukee Brewers after Christian Bethancourt hit a solo home run.