Rays strike first in series between MLB's top two teams

There's a reason the Rays and Rangers are the two best teams in Major League Baseball.

For starters, they're the top two scoring teams in the league. Tampa leads the bigs in home runs. Texas is No. 1 in batting average. And they're both top-five in ERA, shutouts, hits and slugging percentage.

But they hadn't faced off against each other this season until Friday night, and the Rays were determined to leave little doubt in anyone's mind that they're the team to beat after an impressive 8-3 win.

The victory was Tampa's 47th on the year, a full seven wins better than Texas, who has the second-most, with 40. It also sees them five full games ahead of the Rangers in the American League standings.

While it was an important win for the team, it was an even bigger one for Rays starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who won his first game in more than two years after battling numerous injuries over the course of the last three seasons.

Talking after the game, Glasnow said, "I think today was the first time that I've felt back to relatively normal."

Asked if he knew it had been two years since his last win, Glasnow seemed surprised, yet proud as well. "I don't know, is it? Yeah, probably ... Yeah, sweet! Nice! Yeah!"