ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) —Shane McClanahan struck out 10 over seven innings, Tampa Bay had a three-run seventh keyed by an overturend call and the Rays completed a three-game sweep by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Sunday.
McClanahan (8-3) allowed one run and four hits, and had 10 strikoeouts, lowering his major league-leading ERA to 1.77 ERA and grabbing the big league lead in strikeouts with 123.
“I would be hard pressed to find a better left-hander pitcher in the American League or in the National League than the guy we saw today,” Pirates maanger Derek Shelton said. “The slider is elite, and then the thing he does really well is when he goes and gets a fastball he goes fastball inside to right-hander’s 97-99 (mph).”
The Rays took a 4-1 lead in the seventh on Ji-Man Choi’s run-scoring double and RBI singles by Josh Lowe and Isaac Paredes off Anthony Banda, who replaced Tyler Beede (0-1) with one on and two outs.
It appeared the inning was over with the score still 1-1 when Randy Arozarena was called out attempting to steal second. The call by second base umpire Dan Merzel was overtuned when a video review shortstop Diego Castillo missed the tag.
“I didn’t get the greatest job initally, so when I stealing the base I saw the ball got there before I did,” Arozarena said through a translator. “I knew that I’m going to have to change what my hands were doing in order to try and be safe.”
Rays manage Kevin Cash called it a pretty athletic move.
“The swim move where he tucked the left arm and reached around with the right,” Cash said. “That was a pretty pivotial part of the game.”
Paredes went 3 for 3 with a walk and is 10 for 15 over his last four games.
Brooks Raley worked the ninth for his fourth save as the Rays won their team-record 12th straight game decided by two runs or fewer.
Daniel Vogelbach hit a pinch-hit solo homer in the eighth for the Pirates, who dropped to 8-16 in June.
Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco was reinstated from the 10-day injured list after missing 23 games with a right quadriceps strain and had an infield hit in five at-bats.
Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes went 1 for 4 after missing two games due to shoulder soreness. He was hurt on a collision at the plate while scoring the winning run in the 10th inning Thursday night against the Chicago Cubs.
Vidal Bruján put the Rays up 1-0 in the second when he drew the fourth walk of the inning off Roansy Contreras.
Contreras gave up one run, four hits and five walks along with four strikeouts in five innings.
Bryan Reynolds tied it at 1 with a third-inning RBI single.
“We played well enough to win all three games, and we didn’t win any of the games,” Shelton said. “We have to figure out a way to close those games out. That’s one of the development things for young players.”
