Can the Tampa Bay Rays challenge the record for most wins in April?

With a 14-3 record and 12 games remaining until April 30, the Tampa Bay Rays have a very real chance of establishing a new MLB record for most wins in the first month of the season.

Based on research on Baseball-Reference.com, there have been 13 teams that have won 19 or more games in the month of April (for the sake of this list, we have included games/wins from March as part of the April stats.) The record for most wins in March/April is 21. The 2003 New York Yankees and the 2018 Boston Red Sox each won 21 games in those seasons. The Yanks were 21-6, while the Red Sox were also 21-6.

Here’s a look at the 13 teams that have won the most games in March/April.

Most wins in March/April in a season being chased by Tampa Bay Rays

21: 2002 New York Yankees, 2018 Boston Red Sox

20: 2001 Seattle Mariners, 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks, 2014 Milwaukee Brewers, 2018 Arizona Diamondbacks, 2018 Houston Astros, 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers

19: 1997 Atlanta Braves, 1998 San Diego Padres, 2003 San Francisco Giants, 2019 St. Louis Cardinals, 2019 Tampa Bay Rays

With 12 games left in April as of the morning of April 18, the Tampa Bay Rays would need to win eight of their remaining 12 games (taking into consideration there are no games postponed) to reach 22 wins and the new record.

With a 14-3 record through games of April 17, the Rays have a .824 winning percentage in March/April. Schedules were a lot different in the early days of baseball and playing 20-30 games in April was not common. Since 1901, there has been only one team that has had a .875 winning percentage in March/April with a minimum of 20 games played. That was the 1984 Detroit Tigers who went 18-2 (.900) in April. With a 19-7 record in March, those Tigers had an ungodly record of 37-9 going into June, an .804 winning percentage.

And, in case you didn’t know, the ’84 Tigers eventually won the World Series that season.

Since 2000, there have been only six teams that have had a winning percentage of .750 or better on the first day of May. The six:

Six teams with a .750 winning percentage in April since 2000

Atlanta, 2000: 18-6, .750
Minnesota, 2001: 18-6, .750
Seattle, 2001: 20-5, .800
New York Yankees, 2003: 21-6, .778
Chicago Cubs, 2016: 17-5, .773
Boston Red Sox, 2018: 21-7, .750

To reach a winning percentage of .800 (or better) going into May, Tampa Bay would need to finish the month 24-5 (.828), which would mean winning 10 of their last 12 games this month.

Keep watch on the Atlanta Braves in April

One more point: While the Rays got a lot of attention with their 13 straight wins to start the 2023 campaign, another team, the Atlanta Braves, has a 13-4 record (.765 winning percentage) heading into Tuesday’s game in San Diego. It’ll be fun to keep an eye on the Braves as we watch how the Rays perform the rest of the month.