"Evan Longoria had extra motivation during his month-long stay on the disabled list with a strained left oblique.

Seeing his teammates battle back from a 1-8 start without him — watching them overcome the unexpected retirement of Manny Ramirez, woeful starts at the plate by several players and the absence of Johnny Damon at a critical juncture — helped Longoria push through the tedium of rehab.

The three-time All Star and two-time Gold Glove third baseman will rejoin the Rays for tonight's series opener against the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field, provided there were no setbacks in his final minor-league rehab start Monday night at Montgomery.

Longoria says that had he known April 2 that the Rays would be two games over .500 (15-13) when he came back, he would have been ecstatic.

"Yeah, I would have felt like I'd won the Lotto at that point," he said Monday on a conference call. "Obviously, nobody wants to go down on Day Two of the season, especially when the team was kind of in the situation we were in. Johnny hurting his finger at the same time – we didn't know how long he would be out.

"It doesn't surprise me they're in the situation they're in, because of the way they go about it every day, but it's been a blessing for them to have played as well as they've played."

That the Rays have climbed out of a deep hole without Longoria and after the unexpected loss of Ramirez, who raised spirits during spring training after the loss of several key players and was supposed to fill the designated hitter and cleanup hitter roles, is hugely encouraging.

Longoria will make a team that is 14-5 over its last 19 games better. A .294 hitter with 22 home runs and 104 RBIs last year, he'll make the top half of the order more potent — manager Joe Maddon wasn't sure whether he would put him back in the No. 3 hole or use him elsewhere — while substantially upgrading the defense.

"Obviously, you're missing an All-Star player, a Silver Slugger guy, a Gold Glove guy," Maddon said. "You're missing the guy that's supposed to be the centerpiece of your lineup, offensively. ...

"So you put him back where you're supposed to, and all these other guys have kind of gotten toasty around him. I'd like to believe that it's going to benefit us even more.""