ST. PETERSBURG -- The reason behind Nate Lowe spending the last month in Triple-A Durham had nothing to do with a lack of confidence from the Rays in the ability of the left-handed hitting slugger.

During his time in Durham over the last month, Lowe said he spent his time continuing to work and staying ready, knowing that he will have another opportunity to make an impact with the Major League club.

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On Sunday, Lowe was one of five players activated on the first day of rosters expanding in September, and the big left-hander didn’t waste any time to make the impact he knew he would make. His two-run home run in the fourth inning carried the Rays to an 8-2 win over the Indians, securing the three-game sweep and a 1/2-game lead over Cleveland for the top American League Wild Card spot.

“It was great,” Lowe said, when asked about hitting his fourth-inning home run. “That’s why we show up and play. It’s great to go out there and put up a couple of runs for the team and help us get a win.”

After hitting 27 home runs in the Minors in 2018, opening a lane for Lowe was a key reason the Rays decided to make the tough decision of trading Jake Bauers, who was thought to be the first baseman of the future, to the Indians during the offseason.

However, due to Ji-Man Choi not having any options and the acquisition of Jesus Aguilar from Milwaukee on July 31, the Rays had to remain flexible with its roster, which resulted in Lowe spending most of August at Triple-A Durham despite hitting five home runs in 30 big league games this season.

To Lowe’s credit, he didn’t let the demotion affect him like it did the previous times, and came up big as the Rays won their fourth consecutive game.

“It’s super cool,” Lowe said. “Being able to put ourselves in a better spot in a playoff race is awesome. We just beat a really good Cleveland club. Says a lot to what these guys have done all year and hopefully what we’re going to do the rest of the year.”

Lowe’s blast, combined with scoreless outings from Hoby Milner and Pete Fairbanks, who were also activated on Sunday, were key examples of how deep and versatile the Rays roster can be over the last 24 games of the regular season.

“Big impact right away,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash on the September callups. “We’re going to continue to use them all. That’s what’s going to make us good and give us our best chances to continue winning games -- we use the whole roster.

“We always talk about how teams are built. Some are built with nine guys and a couple pitchers. We’re built with close to 40 guys and we’ll use them all.”

The reinforcements, combined with the usual solid performances by Charlie Morton, has the Rays believing that they could have a special September, and Sunday was a good start.

“We got off to the right start. Set a tone,” Cash said. “Really liked how offensively we kept adding runs. Something we’ll have to do the rest of the month.”

Morton bounced back nicely after allowing a season-high six runs over four innings in his last outing against the Astros. The Rays right-hander allowed just one run and struck out eight over 5 1/3 innings of work. After recording just two swings-and-misses in his last start, Morton returned to form, ending Sunday’s start with 16 swings-and-misses.

“I think [Mike Zunino] did a good job with the game plan going in and we tried some different things,” Morton said. “Some backdoor cutters, a couple of changeups there, I think we elevated pretty well. Just a little bit of a different look. But it went well.”

Overall, it was a perfect weekend for a Rays team that needed to make up ground against the Indians, who entered the weekend series with a 2 1/2-game cushion over Tampa Bay in the Wild Card race. With the three-game sweep, the Rays now hold a 1/2-game cushion over the Indians and one game over the A’s, who lost to the Yankees on Sunday.

“That’s a big deal,” Morton said. “That’s a really good team. They’re tough, so to do that on the last days of August and first day of September, it’s a really big deal. Naturally, we’re going to pay attention a little bit to what Oakland’s doing and what Cleveland’s doing, but at the same time, we have to keep focus on what we’re doing and we can control.”