ST. PETERSBURG -- Shane McClanahan has already accomplished a lot in his young career. He’s appeared in three postseasons. He’s pitched twice on Opening Day. He was the American League’s starter in the All-Star Game last summer.

That’s all nice, in McClanahan’s view. But the “ultimate compliment,” he says, is consistency.

Rays manager Kevin Cash and plenty of McClanahan’s teammates paid him that compliment after the left-hander became the Majors’ first six-game winner this season by pitching six strong innings in the Rays’ 8-1 win over the Pirates on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

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“Every time he goes out there, that's what we expect -- and it's what we get,” said outfielder Josh Lowe. “He's our ace for a reason.”

McClanahan allowed just one run, five hits and two walks while striking out nine as he improved to 6-0 with a 2.03 ERA on the year. The Rays have won each of McClanahan’s seven starts to begin the season, and he has allowed two runs or fewer while pitching at least five innings in all seven outings.

“We know how talented he is. He's starting to find that level of consistency that the elite ones do,” Cash said. “We're fortunate that we've got a guy that we can pencil in every fifth day to do that.”

“I don't think I've ever seen him fail,” shortstop Wander Franco added through interpreter Manny Navarro. “He seems to always be on point, and he's definitely a superstar.”

The Rays became the fifth team since the beginning of the integration era (1947) to win at least 25 of their first 31 games, joining the 2016 Cubs, 1984 Tigers, 1958 Yankees and 1955 Dodgers. What else do those four teams have in common? They all went on to win the World Series.

After deploying seven pitchers in their series-opening 4-1 victory, the Rays needed only two pitchers to get the job done on Wednesday. McClanahan handled the first six innings, then Chase Anderson -- acquired from the Reds and called up earlier in the day -- finished the game.

McClanahan did the heavy lifting, with Cash noting he was “the right guy to have going after a game like we were in yesterday,” but he bestowed the customary tequila shot during the Rays’ postgame celebration to Anderson. That capped a wild day for the veteran that began with a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call in Omaha, Neb., and led to his first Major League save in his 200th appearance.

“We gave him the [game] ball and stuff like that, and he was the recipient tonight,” McClanahan said. “It was awesome to watch him do that.”

McClanahan leaned on his fastball, which he ran up to 100 mph, but used everything in his arsenal to keep hitters off-balance. He finished strikeouts with three different pitches. He forced the Pirates to whiff on 17 of their 43 swings.

There wasn’t necessarily anything unusual or different about the ace’s dominant performance in this outing. That’s a big part of why what he’s doing is so impressive to the Rays and so important to McClanahan.

“You kind of want to know what to expect every single time,” McClanahan said. “I've said this for years: My only goal is to help his team win a lot of ballgames, and if that's what consistency means, then I'm OK with that.”

McClanahan once again received plenty of support from Tampa Bay’s lineup, which capitalized on seemingly every mistake Pittsburgh made in the field and on the mound.

After managing just one walk with four strikeouts against Pirates starter Mitch Keller the first time through the order, Yandy Díaz and Franco hit two-out singles to center in the third inning. Harold Ramírez rolled a grounder that tipped off shortstop Rodolfo Castro’s glove for a run-scoring error, then Brandon Lowe made the Pirates pay with a two-run double that bounced over center fielder Bryan Reynolds.

“Sometimes you've got to just make sure you're capitalizing when they give some opportunities,” Cash said.

The Rays were similarly opportunistic in the fifth, scoring two runs after a couple defensive mistakes by Pittsburgh, then they broke out the longball to pull away late in the game.

Josh Lowe and Franco hit the longest home runs of their careers, with Lowe’s 111.8 mph shot traveling a Statcast-projected 455 feet as it hit a catwalk but still bounced off the right-field scoreboard.

“I knew off the bat it was going pretty far,” Lowe said. “But, I mean, they all count the same.”