ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If American League/Astros manager Dusty Baker or Major League Baseball officials somehow need any more convincing that Shane McClanahan deserves to start next week’s All-Star Game, he gave it to them Wednesday.
McClanahan was dominant yet again, holding the Red Sox to one run and three hits over 6 1/3 innings in the Rays’ 4-1 win.
He did what he has done pretty much all season: mix his four above-average pitches, throw strikes, limit damage and put the Rays in position to win.
The only thing he didn’t do with his 85 pitches was get to seven strikeouts — falling one short — and thus ending his AL-record streak of 11 straight starts of working six or more innings, striking out seven or more and allowing two or fewer runs. Only two pitchers had longer such runs in a single season: Randy Johnson, 14 in 1999 for Arizona; and Mike Scott, 12 in 1986 for Houston.
The win was the Rays’ third straight over the Red Sox, improving their record to 48-40 and increasing their margin in second place and their lead in the wild-card race to 1 1/2 games.
The Rays took the lead in the third inning on RBI singles by Ji-Man Choi and Harold Ramirez.
Josh Lowe started the rally with a walk, Francisco Mejia followed with a single and Yandy Diaz with a fielder’s choice grounder, putting Rays on the corners. Choi laced a hard single to center field to score one, and Harold Ramirez blooped a soft one to shallow right field for the other.
The Rays made it 3-0 when Taylor Walls homered, his first since June 7 and fourth overall. And they added a run in the seventh when Lowe walked, was running on the pitch when Diaz singled to right field and kept on going home as the Red Sox were slow to get the ball in.
The Red Sox got their run off McClanahan in the fifth. Xander Bogaerts led off with an infield single when the ball went off diving third baseman Diaz, ran to third on Alex Verdugo’s single and scored on a double-play grounder.
McClanahan has been on quite a roll, improving his record to 10-3 and ranking among the major league leaders in ERA (1.71) and strikeouts (147), among other categories.
Not only does he have the stats to get the starting nod, he was the top vote-getter among AL starters on the players’ ballot and will be on full rest for Tuesday’s game at Dodger Stadium.
McClanahan was matched up with Boston’s Josh Winckowski, and it wasn’t the first time. Both played high school ball in the Fort Myers area, and they met on April 4, 2014, as McClanahan was pitching for Cape Coral High and Winckowski for Cypress Lake.
