2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Season - New Team Records

New Team Records

Andy Sonnanstine broke a team record with seven consecutive strikeouts on June 10 in a victory over the Florida Marlins, his first win of the season.

On September 3, Carlos Peña broke the club single-season home run record, previously 34, held by José Canseco (1999) and Aubrey Huff (2003). Peña's 35th was a two-run homer off Jim Hoey in the seventh inning of a 9-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. On September 16, he became the first Rays player to hit 40 home runs in a season, the 40th being a leadoff homer coming off Jarrod Washburn in the 4th inning of a 9-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners. His 45th home run came off Dustin McGowan in the 5th inning of a 5-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays; it was the second of back-to-back homers, following Jorge Velandia's second homer of the season.

On September 27, Peña took the RBI record, previously set by Jorge Cantú at 117 in 2005. He tied it with an RBI single in the 1st inning for his 117th, and broke it with a solo home run in the 5th inning for his 118th. Both RBIs were off Chien-Ming Wang in a 12-4 loss to the New York Yankees. He finished the season with 46 home runs, 121 RBIs and a 1.037 OPS (.411 OBP, .627 SLG, both Rays season records), becoming the first Devil Ray to finish a season with at least a 1.000 OPS. Peña went on to win Comeback Player of the Year honors for the American League.

Carl Crawford approached the 1,000-hit plateau, but a groin pull in late September ended his season early, leaving him stuck at 990 career hits. He will most likely become the first Devil Ray to hit 1,000 hits with the club early next season. It will not be the first four-digit hit milestone for the club; Wade Boggs got his 3,000th hit while with the team in 1999. His injury, however, did not prevent him from finishing the season with a share of the AL stolen base title with Brian Roberts of the Baltimore Orioles. Both players finished the year with 50, marking the fourth time he's led or shared the lead in that category for a year.

Delmon Young became the first Rays rookie to play in every game of a 162-game season, setting a team record for most at bats taken in a season with 645. He is the second Rays player ever to play in every game in a season, after Aubrey Huff in 2003. Young was held from the lineup for the last game of the season after not hustling to first on a ground ball during the previous game, but apologized for not giving that game his all and entered the final game as a mid-game replacement. At the end of the season, he was considered a leading candidate for the AL Rookie of the Year award.

On September 10, Scott Kazmir became the first Rays pitcher to record 200 strikeouts in a season, in a 1-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox. His 200th strikeout victim for the year was Coco Crisp. He ultimately claimed the A.L. strikeout title, finishing the year with 239. (A one-game playoff permitted Jake Peavy to take the MLB strikeout title with 240.) Kazmir is also the first D-Ray starter to finish a season with at least 10 strikeouts per 9 innings (10.41).

During the course of the season, Scott Kazmir became the first Rays starting pitcher to log enough starts and innings to begin compiling rate-based team all-time pitching records, such as ERA.