WFAN’s Evan Roberts accuses Tampa Bay Rays of cheating after hot start: ‘Sometimes you don’t need evidence.’

The Tampa Bay Rays are the best team in baseball and their red-hot start has WFAN’s Evan Roberts believing something’s fishy in St. Pete.

Entering Tuesday, the Rays are 29-7, on pace for what would be a historic 121 wins. That doesn’t sit well with Roberts, who just watched Tampa take two out of three against the New York Yankees over the weekend.

“There’s something suspicious about that by the way,” Roberts said of the Rays start. “All I know is I’m a baseball fan, I know baseball, I like baseball, I was very skeptical with what I saw this weekend.”

Roberts, who is a die-hard New York Mets fan, admitted “I have no evidence” of the Rays cheating, but pointed to the number of players on their roster who are outperforming their baseball card. This might be Roberts’ most controversial take since he blasted David Price and drew the ire of Red Sox manager Alex Cora back in 2018.

“Christian Bethancourt – HELLOOOO – Taylor Walls, WHAT?!” Roberts ranted. Bethancourt is a 31-year-old catcher who has already mashed the second most homers in any season of his career. Walls is a former top prospect who has improved on last season’s batting average by almost 100 points.

“You know what most of us do? We don’t know who they are so we just say the ‘Rays are brilliant.’ Here’s the problem, I know who they are. They’re not good,” Roberts continued. “The Rays are 19-3 at home? HELLOOOO. Are you gonna wake up when the article’s written in The Athletic, or are you gonna wake up now? Sometimes you don’t need evidence. Sometimes you gotta say, ‘What I’m watching doesn’t make sense.’ So I’ll do it, I’m not a Yankee fan. I’m gonna raise my hand. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, what I’m seeing in Tampa, makes no sense.”

Roberts claiming, “I have no evidence” and “sometimes you don’t need evidence” are interesting defense tactics that probably won’t get too many people to stand behind this hot take. But Roberts is clearly implying he thinks the Rays are involved in a cheating scandal similar to that of the trash can banging Houston Astros, which was uncovered by The Athletic in 2019.

So, without any evidence, is it enough evidence to say Tampa’s 19-3 home record, paired with Christian Bethancourt’s six homers proves something fishy is going on in St. Pete? Or is this just another example of “That’s baseball Suzyn.”

[WFAN]