Sunday, 4 a.m.
Is the bop back for the Tampa Bay Rays?
Maybe. After recent struggles at the plate by both Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe, two of the biggest threats at the plate, the Rays found power from both of them in Saturday night's 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Tropicana Field.
Meadows, trying to come out of a two-for-23 slump, homered in the first inning and Lowe, who had a 0-for-22 slump recently, broke a tie with his seventh-inning homer to power the Rays to victory. It was the fifth straight game with a hit for Lowe and his 12th home run of the season.
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"It was nice that Brandon got a pitch he could handle," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "I how he's been scuffling a little but he kept at it and came up with a big hit today.
"They’ve had better at-bats, for sure. Brandon was frustrated earlier in the game with some of his at-bats. They’re very determined. Give them a ton of credit for sticking it through. Austin’s been in the cage every day. The results help a lot; when you’re scuffling and you get a big hit, that helps your psyche.”
Lowe didn't want to be reminded of his recent struggles.
"What do I have to do?" he said. "I've got a five-game hitting streak."
The Rays lost Ji-Man Choi during the game, who tweaked his hamstring rounding third base and scoring.
“It doesn’t feel good right now," Choi said through an interpreter. "We have to wait and see what the doctor says tomorrow and hope for the best. It’s been hurting for a while. Running around third base, I kind of felt it there. I ran with a lot of pain.”
Tyler Glasnow (3-1) got the win for the Rays, but he wasn't satisfied with his performance. He gave up a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to Christian Arroyo to tie the game.
"I didn’t feel very good," Glasnow said. "I felt out of rhythm. The last couple of innings were better. That’s the case for me this year. I wasn’t really athletic.
"I was super slow to the plate. My time to home was even slower. I have to just get back to being fast and athletic. Today was terrible with controlling the running game."
Glasnow had an issue with the thumb of his pitching hand, which left blood all over his pants.
If I don't cut my nails for a while, when I throw my curveball and my heater, it snags the back of my skin," Glasnow said. "I called him (the trainer) out there to put like surgical glue on it and it helps, but apparently MLB has a rule that you can't put anything on a pitcher's (throwing) hand or something."
"So, I was just throwing bloody baseballs during COVID," Glasnow added. "That should probably be a change. I went into the (dugout) tunnel after (the inning) and put like surgical glue on it and it was good. It's fine now, it's cool."
The Rays play against Boston again today at 1:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Charlie Morton will start for the Rays and Martin Perez for the Red Sox.