Tyler Glasnow ran into trouble twice on Wednesday night. First, when he felt some cramping in his right calf on his way out to the mound to begin the seventh inning -- a problem reminiscent of his severe hand and leg cramps at Yankee Stadium on April 17, but one quickly remedied when he chugged some Gatorade.

The other issue came as a result of his genuinely awestruck reaction to Kevin Kiermaier’s diving catch at the warning track in the seventh inning, and it was in the form of a text from his mother, Donna: “You’ve got to stop cussing on TV. Like, cover your mouth or something.”

On the mound, though, Glasnow hardly found any trouble at all. The Rays’ ace was in command from the start against the A’s, cruising through seven innings on 97 pitches and striking out 10 in the Rays’ 2-0 win at Tropicana Field.

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“Basically every time he pitches, it's just pretty remarkable stuff, the way he's able to repeat it,” manager Kevin Cash said. “That lineup's got a lot of really good hitters -- really good hitters. And the way he goes about navigating to get them out and limit damage is just really, really impressive.”

Glasnow has put together back-to-back 10-strikeout games for the first time in his career, but the strikeout stuff is nothing new for him. He has seemingly reached a new level when it comes to consistently working deep into games, however. Consider: Glasnow pitched at least six innings in only a third of his 51 regular-season starts entering this year, and he’s already completed six innings in five of six starts this season.

What’s allowed Glasnow to be so dominant and so efficient? Look at how he did it against Oakland.

For one, Glasnow threw 69 percent of his pitches for strikes. He was relentlessly ahead in the count, throwing first-pitch strikes to 22 of the 27 batters he faced. When he felt he was getting too one-dimensional in the first two innings, he started mixing in his new slider more often -- and that pitch has allowed him to take another step this season.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the sixth, Glasnow ended an eight-pitch at-bat against Seth Brown with a slider in the zone. Brown hit it to shortstop Willy Adames for an inning-ending groundout. That was the only time all night the A’s had a runner get past second base.

“I think that was the separator. I think in the first couple innings, I was throwing my fastball a lot, and it kind of had a lot of similarities from last year -- just I felt like guys were starting to sell out a bit,” Glasnow said. “And I think once I started throwing that slider for a strike later in the third inning or so, it got a lot easier for me.”

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The A’s whiffed on eight of his 51 four-seamers and eight of his 33 sliders while missing on all three of the swings they attempted against his curveball, bringing that pitch’s whiff rate up to 55 percent on the year. Glasnow even mixed in five changeups, utilizing his entire arsenal.

“It just opened up his menu of pitches, and it kept guys on their toes,” catcher Mike Zunino said. “If he's coming with an offspeed pitch, it just throws guys off a little bit, and they still have to respect 97-plus [mph]. So just a great outing by him, being able to go deep into that ballgame and really give our ‘pen a little bit of a break.”

Zunino provided the biggest -- and certainly the loudest -- hit of the night in the fifth. With two outs, Zunino blasted a 2-2 sinker from A’s lefty Cole Irvin off The Trop’s C-ring catwalk for his team-leading fifth home run. According to Statcast, the ball boomed off his bat at 112.8 mph and was projected to travel 466 feet, although the catwalk impeded its flight.

“I would have liked to have seen where the ball would have gone had it not hit one of the rings, because he got every bit of it,” Cash said of Zunino, who surpassed his home run total and tied his hit total (11) from last season with Wednesday’s performance. “We know how strong Mike is and how much power he can create when he's timed up.”

After fanning Tony Kemp in the seventh with a low fastball for his 10th strikeout of the night, Glasnow gave up a hard line drive to A’s shortstop Vimael Machín. But Kiermaier tracked down the 99.4 mph shot, jumped at the warning track and caught it before falling and crashing into the base of the outfield wall. Standing just behind the mound, Glasnow looked around in awe and tipped his cap to Kiermaier.

And, yes, as his mother noticed, he had a few words to say as well.

“That’s my only reaction I can give him. It's just unbelievable,” Glasnow said. “Every time he does it, too, it's just as shocking. So it's just like a genuine reaction.”