ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Tyler Glasnow flashed his talent early in his return for the Rays, touching triple-digit velocities with his fastball and needing only 12 pitches to strike out the first three Blue Jays he faced.
Glasnow, making his first start since May 10, faltered in the second inning, surrendering two runs before ending his day on the mound, but the bullpen picked him up with seven innings of one-run ball to lead the Rays to an 8-3 win and a four-game sweep over Toronto on Sunday afternoon.
"He's going to be amped up," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Glasnow before Sunday's game. "He's worked hard to get back to this point."
With the win, the Rays improved to 86-59. The 27 games over .500 is a new high-water mark for the season, and the Rays remain ahead of Oakland and Cleveland atop the AL wild-card standings.
Out since May 11 with a right forearm strain, Glasnow quickly reminded the 14,071 fans at Tropicana Field how dominant he can be. He needed only three fastballs to overpower and strike out Lakewood High product Bo Bichette to kick off his start. He followed that up with strikeouts against Teoscar Hernandez and Rowdy Tellez to wrap up his first inning on a major-league mound in nearly four months. Austin Meadows gave his teammate an early 1-0 lead to work with, hitting a 436-foot home run in the bottom of the first inning.
Things were not so easy for Glasnow in his second inning of work.
Glasnow labored through the top of the second, issuing a leadoff walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on five-pitches before surrendering a 451-foot two-run home run off the bat of Toronto outfielder Randal Grichuk. He used 29 pitches to get out of the inning, limiting the damage to only two runs on one hit.
"We're excited, but we've got to temper that and let Tyler work himself back into it," Cash said pregame. "What he did in the first six weeks of the year was pretty special for us. If he resembles that, we're going to be pretty excited.
Glasnow resembled his early-season self in his first inning on the mound. For the day, he fired 41 pitches, struck out five Blue Jays and walked two in his two innings of work. He hit 100 mph with his fastball three times, all in the first inning, and he sat around 97 mph with the pitch for most of his outing.
Glasnow left the game trailing 2-1, but the Rays offense bailed him out with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Third baseman Daniel Robertson lined a triple to rightfield, scoring Kiermaier and Adames to give the Rays a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish.
Avisail Garcia, Ji-Man Choi and Travis d'Arnaud each drove in a run in the three-run fifth inning. Garcia tacked on two more insurance runs with a home run in the seventh.
A combined effort from Trevor Richards, Chaz Roe, Diego Castillo and Cole Sulser provided six shutout innings. Anthony Banda, making his 2019 debut and first major-league outing since his June 2018 Tommy John surgery, allowed a run in the ninth, but held the lead for the Rays victory.
