ST. PETERSBURG -- If the Rays are going to secure the American League East division title and make a deep run into October, the club will need Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe to spearhead the offense.

On Saturday, both Meadows and Lowe led the way with solo home runs in the Rays’ 5-4 win over the Red Sox at Tropicana Field. Dating back to last season, Tampa Bay is 7-0 in games that both Meadows and Lowe homer in. With the win, the Rays became the first AL team to win 30 games this season. They lead the division by 4 1/2 games over the Blue Jays.

• Box score

“They’ve had better at-bats, for sure,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “These guys are really, really determined. They get frustrated with themselves more than anything when things don’t go their way, but give them a ton of credit for kind of sticking through and putting the work in.”

Like a lot of players around the league, the start of the season was unusual for Meadows. He reported to Summer Camp for the first workout, but then tested positive for a COVID-19 test that forced him to miss the first two weeks of the regular season.

Upon returning, Meadows hasn’t quite found his form yet. He entered Saturday’s game with a .426 OPS in his last nine games, though he has now picked up a hit in each of his last three games. Saturday’s home run was his first since Aug. 18 against the Yankees.

“You’re always pulling for that guy to do well,” Lowe said. “Especially [with him] not starting the way that he’s accustomed to doing and we’re accustomed to see him do, but the last few days have definitely been encouraging.”

While Meadows was down at the beginning of the season, it was Lowe that carried the Rays’ offense, launching nine home runs in August and winning one AL Player of the Week honor. But like any season, opposing pitchers made some adjustments against Lowe.

Lowe entered Saturday hitting .148 in his last 18 games, including a career-long 0-for-22 skid. Lowe, however, appears to have made the necessary adjustments to counter pitchers and is seeing instant results. With his go-ahead 431-foot blast in the seventh, Lowe now has a hit in five consecutive games.

“It was really impressive and very timely,” Cash said of Lowe’s go-ahead homer. “It was nice that Brandon could get a pitch that he can handle and we answered right back. Brandon has had a tremendous season and I know he’s been scuffling a bit as of late, but he keeps at it and came up with just a huge hit today.”

Glasnow’s outing
Tyler Glasnow picked up his third win of the season, allowing four runs over seven innings. Glasnow struck out seven, which was his fewest total since Aug. 8 against the Yankees, but his strikeout total this season is now 73 over 46 1/3, which is good for a 14.18 K/9 IP ratio.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Cash said. “I thought his stuff was really, really good. The breaking ball was pretty violent. I thought he had better stuff today than he did against the Marlins.”

Though Cash and the Rays were pleased with the outing, the right-hander said that he didn’t feel like he was in a good rhythm on Saturday. Glasnow allowed two home runs, the most he’s allowed in a game since giving up two on Sept. 28, 2018 against the Blue Jays.

Glasnow, who has struggled with holding runners on throughout his career, allowed six stolen bases in the win, setting a new franchise record.

“I didn’t feel very good,” Glasnow said. “It's kind of overthinking when I’m not feeling right instead of just trying to go up there and compete with what I have. I’m like trying to fix and feel perfect when really, what I did last year was say, ‘OK, I don’t feel great today, let’s just go out and be athletic.’”

Glasnow also pitched through a bloody thumb on his right hand, which is something he said happens when he doesn’t cut his nails for a while. The right-hander said that it usually gets irritated when he throws the curveball, but it’s not something that he thinks will carry over into his next start.

“It was fine. I didn’t even think about it,” Glasnow said. “It was just blood on my pants and then it was fine after that.”