'Best pitcher in baseball' McClanahan throws another gem

ST. PETERSBURG -- Even after the longest start of his young career, an eight-inning gem in the Rays’ 2-1 win over the Cardinals, Shane McClanahan had little interest in big-picture assessments and evaluations. Tampa Bay’s lefty ace had just completed yet another dominant outing, but he didn’t want to be part of any conversation about where he ranks among the game’s best starting pitchers.

“I don’t care. I just want to win,” McClanahan said. “I want to pitch in October and want to help this team get to where we want to be."

His teammates, however, were happy to point out what McClanahan is doing and the elite level he’s reaching seemingly every time he takes the mound. It’s easy to see in the numbers he’s putting together this season, and it was plainly visible on the mound Thursday afternoon.

“Honestly, he's the top pitcher on our team,” first baseman Ji-Man Choi said through interpreter Daniel Park. “Including all the 30 teams in the league right now, I think he's the best pitcher."

“I’ve got him as arguably the best pitcher in baseball,” reliever Jason Adam added. “In my book, he is, no doubt. He’s incredible.”

“I’m biased, but I’m going to say yes,” said catcher Mike Zunino. “What he’s doing, his stuff from the left side, if he’s not in the talks to be in the top three in the league, then I don’t know who is."

McClanahan held a dangerous Cardinals lineup to only one run on two hits and a walk while striking out nine as the Rays completed a three-game sweep at Tropicana Field and moved a season-high 11 games over .500 at 34-23.

It was the longest start by a Rays pitcher since Ryan Yarbrough’s complete game against the Yankees on June 3, 2021. And it’s almost what the Rays have come to expect from McClanahan, who leads the Majors with 98 strikeouts. He’s allowed only five runs over his past six starts spanning 40 innings, a stretch that has lowered his ERA to 1.87 on the year.

“I think he's putting himself in a category here for two months of the season -- a pretty special, elite category,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “When you have that stuff and you have that command, that's why he's there."

McClanahan allowed two hits: a second-inning bloop double to shallow right field by Albert Pujols that could have been caught and a sixth-inning Nolan Arenado single to left. The Cardinals’ only run scored in the sixth on a misplay by McClanahan, who knocked down Pujols’ comebacker and rushed the throw to first base, only for it to skip past Choi and allow Paul Goldschmidt to score.

Otherwise, McClanahan was masterful. He was quick to credit his defense, as usual, and the Rays’ outfield trio of Manuel Margot, Kevin Kiermaier and Brett Phillips were unsurprisingly effective at turning hard-hit balls into outs.

“We hit a few balls hard, but it’s not like we were smoking them all over the place. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Goldschmidt said. “He’s been doing it the whole year, and it’s not like today is a fluke. You look at his stats, and he’s been one of the best pitchers in the league."

Breaking up a duel between McClanahan and Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, who allowed two runs on three hits while striking out nine over eight innings, Choi provided all the run support McClanahan needed with a two-run homer to right field in the fourth.

“I'm just glad that we had Shane on the other side to kind of combat that,” Cash said, “but appreciative of Ji-Man getting a hold of one."

McClanahan used everything in his four-pitch mix, with a particularly nasty fastball that generated 11 whiffs and only got better late in the game. McClanahan’s 93rd pitch of the day was a 98.4 mph fastball, which Goldschmidt swung on and missed, and his final offering was his hardest pitch of the day: a 98.9 mph heater that Goldschmidt popped up.

Not bad for a guy who’d never worked that deep into a game, right?

“I felt good,” McClanahan said. “It didn’t feel like the eighth, and it’s a nice step in the right direction.

McClanahan was in such a groove that Cash admittedly thought about sending him back out for the ninth inning. But the Rays didn’t want to add another inning on to the biggest workload of his career, and Adam wound up working around a leadoff walk to secure his second save.

The way the ever-improving McClanahan’s season is going, though, it might not be long before he gets the chance to finish what he started.

“I would’ve liked it, but I understand. Jason has been dynamite for us all year,” McClanahan said. “I trust Cash. I trust [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder. They obviously are going to do the best thing for this team and myself going forward, so I think he made the right call.”