Sunday, 3 a.m.
Shane McClanahan was slipping. The Tampa Bay Rays were falling.
For the day, at least, both of those slumps were stopped. The Rays won an 8-2 victory, their most runs in a month, over the Baltimore Orioles to recapture the third and final wild-card slot in the standings.
McClanahan, who had lost back-to-back decisions, pitched six innings and allowed just two earned runs to take his 11th win of the year. Once again, McClanahan lacked his cutaway pitch -- he struck out just four and has 11 over his last three games -- but calmed the Orioles' attack.
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"I think teams have recognized, what we’ve seen coming out of the break, is that you're better off trying to get him early in the at-bat," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "You’ve seen some guys who are changing their approach. They’re not waiting around because his stuff is so good. I thought Baltimore did that. They were very aggressive early on. The benefit of that is that he had really quick innings."
The Rays trailed 2-1 after two innings, but retook the lead in the third inning on back-to-back doubles by Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes.
Jose Siri had three hits for the Rays, while Arozarena and Francisco Mejia had two each.
The Rays and Orioles had a dustup late in the game when reliever Pete Fairbanks objected to a late time-out call by Robinson Chitinos. Fairbanks said he misunderstood who called the time-out.
The Rays and Orioles wind up their season series today at 1:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Each team has eight wins. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Jordan Lyles.