Cleveland made American League All-Star starter Shane McClanahan looked very ordinary as the Guardians defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 on Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
McClanahan (10-4) had perhaps his worst outing of the season to end a run of allowing two or fewer runs in his last 14 starts.
McClanahan, who came into the game with a 1.76 ERA, lasted only 4 1/3 innings and was charged with five earned runs. He gave up seven hits and three walks on 96 pitches and struck out four in his first career appearance against Cleveland.
A two-run single by Austin Hedges in the fifth inning drove in Franmil Reyes and Alex Call to put the Guardians up 5-3 and the lead didn’t change after that.
The Guardians got on top early with a three-run second inning. After the first two runners reached base, Myles Straw drove in two runs with a bloop single. Jose Ramirez followed with an RBI single to give Cleveland a 3-0 lead.
The Guardians started the game with Bryan Shaw, normally a reliever, in the “opener” role. Shaw went only two innings, allowing two runs and two hits before giving way to a series of relievers.
Kirk McCarty (2-2), Cleveland’s third pitcher, allowed one run and four hits in 3 1/3 innings to pick up the win.
Cleveland’s Steven Kwan had a bunt single in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.
The Rays cut their three-run deficit to 3-2 in their half of the inning as Isaac Paredes doubled and scored on a wild pitch and Ji-Man Choi drove in Yu Chang with a fielder’s choice.
Tampa Bay made it a 3-3 tie in the fourth inning as Choi picked up his 43rd RBI of the season on a sacrifice fly that scored Paredes, who had two hits in the game. Brandon Lowe had two doubles for the Rays.
Cleveland won two of three games in the series and finished an 11-game road trip with six wins and five losses.
–Field Level Media
