Glasnow 'outstanding' before Rays' walk-off

A night after the Rays received a strong eight-inning outing from Rich Hill, club ace Tyler Glasnow delivered another brilliant start on Wednesday.

Glasnow threw eight scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts, but he settled for a no-decision, as Manuel Margot’s single in the 10th gave the Rays a 2-1 walk-off win over the Royals at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay will go for the series victory in the rubber match on Thursday afternoon.

“He couldn't have been much better,” manager Kevin Cash said of Glasnow, who allowed just three hits and two walks. “The efficiency is amazing. With that type of stuff, he finds a way to harness it in the zone while he picked up his strikeouts. It was just an outstanding effort.”

It was the sixth time in 11 starts this year that Glasnow posted double-digit strikeouts. He also finished with a 49% swing-and-miss rate on the 51 swings from Royals’ hitters, according to Statcast. But his chance for a win evaporated when reliever J.P. Feyereisen gave up Andrew Benintendi’s tying homer in the ninth.

In his previous start, Glasnow gave up five runs on nine hits and exited before the end of the fifth inning against the Blue Jays. He recorded only 11 swings-and-misses. The 25 he forced against Royals hitters was the second most he has had this season. His highest total was 27 whiffs during an April 12 start against the Rangers.

Glasnow said he felt locked in and his fastball, slider and curveball were working effectively in the early innings against Kansas City.

“I definitely notice swinging misses for sure,” Glasnow said. “I think just especially with my slider, I think because it's so relatively new. When I am timed up, I usually get a pretty good amount with that pitch. … I noticed tonight for sure. I think my stuff was timed up early on and it was definitely better than the last start.”

Glasnow was a problem for the Royals from the first pitch until his exit. He needed just 36 pitches through the first four innings, retiring 13 straight to start the game before Kelvin Gutierrez singled with one out in the fifth inning. Glasnow punctuated his impressive night with a swinging strikeout of Carlos Santana on a 95.6 mph fastball, his 102nd pitch.

Feyereisen kept the game tied in the 10th, stranding pinch-runner Michael A. Taylor on third base after he began the inning as the automatic runner on second. In the bottom half of the inning, rookie Taylor Walls’ flyout to deep center field advanced Kevin Kiermaier to third base. After Austin Meadows was intentionally walked, Margot singled to right for the first walk-off hit of his career.

Margot said winning is the ultimate goal, but being able to pick up your starter after a performance like Glasnow’s adds to the emotion of the victory.

“We were able to get the job done there in the end,” Margot said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “You always want to back up your starting pitcher with the job that they do, in the way that Glas did today.”

Glasnow also received some solid defense behind him.

On a ball trailing into the left-center-field gap off the bat of Benintendi in the first inning, Brett Phillips raced from center field to the warning track and got there just in time to stretch his glove out and rob Benintendi of extra bases.

Phillips had to cover 91 feet in 4.9 seconds to make the catch, according to Statcast. The flyout had a 45% catch probability and was rated as a four-star play. It was also the third time in this series that Benintendi was robbed of extra bases by a Rays center fielder.

The Rays also had solid infield play, with Mike Brosseau making a diving stop on a 100.4 mph grounder to third base off the bat of Salvador Perez in the second inning, and fine defense by Joey Wendle and Yandy Díaz in the third.

“We know how important and how valuable our pitchers are,” Cash said. “We're going to do everything we can to prevent runs behind them, and we saw that tonight. [Phillips’] play was awesome, and then the infield plays were just really, really good.”