Left-hander Shane McClanahan put together one of the best outings of his young career on Sunday afternoon. He threw a season-high six innings and struck out a career-high eight Mariners, but the Rays fell to Seattle once again, 6-2, in 10 innings at T-Mobile Park. The loss wrapped a four-game sweep at the hands of Seattle and increased Tampa Bay’s losing streak to six games.

“I’m not worried at all. This is a great group of guys. It’s a great clubhouse,” said McClanahan, who picked up a no-decision. “We are going to start winning. It’s just who we are. This team has a bunch of winners. I wouldn’t be worried at all. I know a lot of guys who are not worried.”

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The game was tied, 2-2, when Shed Long Jr. hit a two-out, walk-off grand slam against reliever Diego Castillo, providing Seattle with its third walk-off win of the weekend series.

Castillo wanted the breaking ball down in the zone, but the pitch stayed up and Long crushed it over the right-field wall.

“I was aiming to throw it a little lower,” Castillo said.   

McClanahan was dominating for most of the game, allowing just three hits and mostly keeping the Mariners' bats at bay while attacking the zone. His only mistake occurred in the third inning when Luis Torrens homered to give Seattle a 1-0 lead.

After that blemish, McClanahan retired 12 of the next 14 hitters he faced, departing having thrown 86 pitches and with a 2-1 lead, but reliever Ryan Thompson allowed Seattle to tie the it up in the seventh on a solo homer by Ty France.

“With that type of outing [from McClanahan], you are going to get wins and we will,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I was impressed with Shane's overall work."

McClanahan was going strong in his last inning on the mound -- so why did Cash take him out of the game? The answer had to do with the stable crop of bullpen arms at Cash's disposal. Additionally, McClanahan was also on a pitch limit.  

The 24-year-old declined to give himself any credit for the outing. Instead, he praised his teammates. 

“I had a lot of help. I owe a lot of credit to those guys behind me,” McClanahan said. "… I have good camaraderie when I throw to [catcher Mike Zunino]. .... We had a good game plan today. We executed to the best of our ability. I felt good. Everything felt pretty good. But it is what it is.” 

After concluding a tough weekend in Seattle, the Rays now head back home to open a three-game series against the Red Sox on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.  

“It has been a long week. It certainly is not good [in terms of] results,” Cash said. “Hopefully, the day off can get us in the right direction and [we] know we have a big, exciting series against the Red Sox, a team we haven’t seen since the first week [of the season].”