Rays third baseman Evan Longoria suffered a freak hamstring injury sliding into second base on a stolen-base attempt back in April. Since then, he spent nearly two months doing nothing, then aggravated the injury during his rehab assignment.

Now, however, the Rays will have him back:

#Rays option Rhymes back to Durham, announce Longoria is coming back

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) August 6, 2012

Longoria did play Sunday for his final rehab game:

Longoria felt good enough to play Sunday for Triple-A Durham, when an off-day was expected.

Longoria went 2-for-3 with a pair of line-drive singles in Durham’s 6-4 loss against Gwinnett. Overall, Longoria has batted .200 (5-for-25, all as the designated hitter) in his eight-game rehabilitation assignment.

Longoria was off to a tremendous start — .329/.433/.561 in 82 at-bats — before the injury, and the Rays were 15-8 when he went down with the injury. They’re 41-44 since, so they’re hoping he can help jump-start their offense in the tight AL wild-card race.

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