Glasnow records career-high 11 punchouts

CHICAGO -- In a game that was delayed 99 minutes and the temperature dropped to as low as 38 degrees, Rays starter Tyler Glasnow delivered one of the best pitching performances of his young career.

“The elements made it more impressive,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “It was cold. It didn’t seem to faze Tyler one bit.”

Despite the weather, Glasnow continued his early season dominance, recording a career-high 11 strikeouts over six shutout innings in the Rays’ 9-1 win over the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon, completing a three-game sweep.

Glasnow is now 3-0 with a 0.53 ERA in three starts this season. The 11 strikeouts is the second most by a Rays pitcher this season, behind Blake Snell’s 13 punchouts against the Rockies on April 2.

“With him, when he’s establishing strike command and throwing a lot of strikes,” Cash said, “he has a chance to have very special days.”

When the Rays acquired Glasnow, along with Austin Meadows -- who hit his team-leading fourth home run of the season on Wednesday -- from the Pirates in the July 31 trade that sent Chris Archer to Pittsburgh, the organization knew how much talent there was in Glasnow.

In his time with the Pirates, Glasnow was ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the organization, but wasn’t able to put it all together in his first couple of years in the big leagues. In his first two seasons with the Pirates, Glasnow had a 6.77 ERA over 85 1/3 innings, and was sent back to Triple-A a couple of times. In 2018, Glasnow had a 4.34 ERA in 56 innings with Pittsburgh before finishing with a 4.20 ERA in 55.2 innings with Tampa Bay.

The talent was never an issue with the right-hander, but Glasnow credits his early season success in 2019 due to a shift in mentality.

“Just kind of getting rid of, I was convincing myself that things were physical before and really trying to nitpick and bottle stuff when I was feeling really good as opposed to going and just locking in that mentality and being confident,” Glasnow said. “Just really going out and having fun and being athletic and not having unwanted thoughts.”

Glasnow says conversations with Snell, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, and Charlie Morton have helped in his development this season.

“I think for me, just that trade, was kind of a wakeup call in a way,” Glasnow said. “Talking to Blake [Snell] and talking to [pitching coach Kyle Snyder] about it, it’s really all we talk about. I think when Blake adjusted and started to do really well, he really said it was all a mentality change. So I’ve been picking his brain about it and finding ways to get locked in.”

Glasnow was certainly locked in during Wednesday’s career day. Of the 85 pitches the right-hander threw against the White Sox, 54 of them went in for strikes. Glasnow threw his four-seam fastball 58 times and it averaged 96.1 mph, which is right around his 96.6 average this season.

But when Glasnow is going well, and Wednesday certainly fits that description, the right-hander is finishing off opposing hitters with his breaking ball, which he threw 25 times on Wednesday, nine of them resulting in a strikeout.

“For me, it was the first time I saw a curveball like he had,” said White Sox outfielder Eloy Jimenez. “He made really good pitches. He threw his curveball low in the zone and it’s hard to recognize when you have a guy throw 99 mph like him.”

The White Sox were never able to get anything going offensively against Glasnow, recording just two hits off the right-hander.

“I thought he did a good job of just trusting his stuff and attacking guys,” said Rays catcher Mike Zunino. “With his kind of stuff, if he can put guys on the defensive, it’s a tough at-bat.”

With Glasnow’s six scoreless innings, the Rays' starting pitchers have a 1.61 ERA in the first 13 games of the season. Over the last nine games, Rays starters have given up just three runs in 44 innings of work, a 0.61 ERA. It’s also the 12th consecutive game that a Rays starter has allowed two runs or fewer.

“I don’t think too many people want to see our pitchers,” said Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. “I don’t care who you are, man. These guys are putting on a show right now, they really are.”