Banda, who fired two perfect innings during which he recorded two strikeouts in a loss to the Angels on Sunday, was singled out postgame by manager Kevin Cash for his performance, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Cash emphasized he was "really, really encouraged" by the 26-year-old's impressive 27-pitch effort, which included strikeouts of Luis Rengifo and Kole Calhoun. The quality of the outing was particularly noteworthy due to a combination of Banda's potential and the long road he's taken to recover from May 2018 Tommy John surgery. That included a rocky and lengthy rehab assignment at Triple-A Durham where Banda produced an elevated 5.57 ERA and 1.43 WHIP across 21 innings. The southpaw has only been utilized twice since being promoted Sept. 2, and Sunday's performance was an upgrade over a debut in which he'd allowed an earned run on three hits over an inning to the Blue Jays exactly one week prior.