Saturday, 4 a.m.
He had been so good, and so important, in the early going for the Tampa Bay Rays. Frankly, it was beginning to look as if Tyler Glasnow could do no wrong.
Turns out, he's human after all.
The Toronto Blue Jays jumped on Glasnow early, handing him his first loss of the year in a 5-3 decision. After two quick strikeouts, six straight batters reached base against Glasnow, leading to four runs.
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In the inning, Rowdy Tellez -- hitting .163 coming into the game -- had a run-scoring double and Marcus Semien -- hitting .196 -- had a three-run homer. After that, Glasnow allowed just two hits and one run, but the damage was done. The Rays dropped to 10-10 on the season.
“He got two quicks outs and looked good," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "He looked really good. They put together some good at-bats against him. They hit the ball hard. Give Tyler credit. The way the first inning went, we didn’t anticipate him getting through six innings. He turned it on somewhat."
Still, it tough to grasp the image after the start that Glasnow had had. Coming in, Glasnow was 2-0 with a 0.73 ERA.
"I just couldn’t execute," Glasnow said. "I got two outs and then I wasn’t really landing pitches,. falling behind. I got tagged for that three-run homer. I got more comfortable as the game went on.
"Just the rhythm was all wrong. It didn’t feel right. I think I was trying to force the feeling. I just was not rhythmic. My hands and legs were all choppy."
Glasnow was able to right the ship enough to get through six innings, which helped the bullpen.
"We were in a state, after the first two innings, that if his pitch count had continued to escalate and blow up, we’re going to blow up our entire bullpen," Cash said. "In a game like this. that’s not what you want to do after an off-day when in theory you're a little fresher. "
Outfielder Randy Arozarena had an impressive fifth inning for the Rays. In the top of the inning, Tellez hit a high fly ball to center field. Kevin Kiermaier, the gold-glover, lost the ball and was standing about 15 feet from where it was going to land. But Arozarena came on and made a diving catch.
In the bottom of the inning, Arozarena hit a three-run homer for the Rays' only runs of the game. The bottom six players in the Rays order had only one hit.
"That was impressive," Cash said. "He came out of nowhere. Very rarely does K.K. lose a ball. He plays center field ... better than anybody maybe in the game. He lost it. He really lost it. He looked like he was 20 feet away."
The Rays will play against the Blue Jays again tonight at Tropicana Field at 6:10 p.m. Ryan Yarbrough will pitch for the Rays against Robbie Ray.