Tampa Bay Rays make history with all lefty lineup

The Tampa Bay Rays made sure they had the platoon advantage on Friday night, as they were the first team in MLB history to have nothing but left handed hitters.

If ever a team was going to find a way to completely capitalize on the platoon advantage, it would be the Tampa Bay Rays.

With the Rays having lost three consecutive games and facing a right handed starter in Andrew Triggs, manager Kevin Cash got creative. For the first time in major league history, the Rays featured a lineup that consisted entirely of left handed hitting players.

Technically, this is not the first time that a team has had every player hit from the left side. There have been lineups that did exactly that, only some of those players were switch hitters. However, the Rays used strictly left handed hitters, which is why that was a first.

This historic lineup worked. Triggs pitched just one inning, with the Red Sox turning to lefty Matt Hall to counter the Rays gambit. Instead, the lineup pounced all over Hall and the Boston bullpen in an 11-1 victory.

It is also not a surprise that the Rays would feature an all lefty lineup at some point. They have had ten different left handed hitters appear in a game for them this season. The Rays typical lineup usually has five or six left handed hitters based on playing time, and there are nine on the active roster.

The biggest surprise may be that this has not happened before. When 40 man rosters were legal in September, and players would get that cup of coffee in the majors, it was entirely possible to have such a lineup. A team battling for a playoff berth and looking for a platoon advantage could have done what the Rays did.

Instead, we have the Tampa Bay Rays continuing to be innovative, even when it comes to the platoon advantage. In doing so, they made major league history on Friday.