TORONTO -- Shane McClanahan isn’t just back. He might be, in some ways, better than ever.
McClanahan extended a dominant stretch by working five shutout innings, and the red-hot Rays found a way to keep rolling as they pulled out a 7-6 victory in 10 innings over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.
McClanahan struck out seven and didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning, but Tampa Bay still had to win in dramatic fashion after blowing a five-run lead in the seventh. In the 10th, Taylor Walls singled through a drawn-in Toronto infield to score Cedric Mullins. Walls advanced on a walk by Yandy Díaz and a wild pitch, then scored when center fielder Daulton Varsho made an incredible catch on Jonathan Aranda’s line drive to the warning track.
Garrett Cleavinger allowed the automatic runner to score in the bottom half of the inning, but nailed down the final three outs as the Rays improved to 16-2 over their last 18 games and 28-13 overall.
McClanahan's performance pushed his career-best scoreless streak to 21 2/3 innings. The left-hander joined teammate and close friend Drew Rasmussen as the only pitchers in franchise history with four straight scoreless starts of at least five innings.
Speaking in the visitors dugout before Tuesday’s game, manager Kevin Cash observed that “everything’s starting to sync up” for McClanahan during this stretch of starts. He looked even better against the struggling Blue Jays, as his fastball velocity again ticked up and his offspeed stuff continued to shine.
The Rays are still being careful with McClanahan’s workload, as his night ended after five innings and 80 pitches. But his performance has been ace-like, with no signs of the injuries that sidelined him for the past 2 1/2 seasons.
His ERA is down to 2.27, fifth-best in the American League among pitchers who have worked at least 35 innings. (Fellow Rays starter Nick Martinez is fourth, with a 1.70 ERA.) He’s racked up 41 strikeouts while allowing only 24 hits in 39 2/3 innings. After issuing 11 walks in his first three starts, he’s permitted only four over his last five outings.
“Confident that these days were coming. It just takes a little bit of time,” Cash said before the game. “But Shane should be really feeling good about where he's at right now.”
McClanahan retired the first seven Toronto hitters he faced in order, walked Davis Schneider in the third inning then set down each of the next five batters. The Jays put some pressure on him in the fifth inning, putting two runners in scoring position after an error by Junior Caminero, a single by Ernie Clement and a fielder’s-choice grounder by Varsho.
But McClanahan stepped on the gas to get out of the jam.
After Varsho stole second, McClanahan won a seven-pitch battle with Schneider, who went down looking at a high slider for the second out of the inning. McClanahan fell behind No. 9-hitting catcher Brandon Valenzuela, but roared back with a sequence punctuated by a high, 97.2 mph fastball that Valenzuela whiffed on.
McClanahan pumped his fists and shouted before marching back to the dugout.
That was one of the five times the lefty’s fastball touched 97 mph on the night. His heater averaged 95.7 mph, up another 0.5 mph from his season average.
His unhittable changeup kept the Jays’ right-handed hitters off-balance all game, as they whiffed on half of their 14 swings against the offspeed offering. He finished at least one strikeout with each of his four pitches, including four with his changeup.
The Rays gave McClanahan some early run support against left-hander Patrick Corbin, as Jonny DeLuca doubled in a run in the first and Mullins drove in two with a two-out single to center in the third. They tacked on two more against Toronto’s bullpen, as Walls scored on a wild pitch that caromed off home-plate umpire Chris Segal’s knee in the sixth and Ryan Vilade ripped his second home run off Jeff Hoffman to lead off the seventh.
But the Blue Jays erased the Rays’ lead with a five-run seventh that included three relievers -- Casey Legumina, Cole Sulser and Kevin Kelly -- and multiple misplays by Caminero.