ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Austin Hedges had a tiebreaking two-run single in the fifth inning to help the Cleveland Guardians beat All-Star Game starter Shane McClanahan and the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 on Sunday.
Cleveland won its first series against the Rays since August 2017 and ended a long stretch of games on the road with a 6-5 record.
“It’s big,” Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan said. “I think we played some really good teams (Chicago White Sox, Boston and Tampa Bay). It’s good momentum.”
Reliever Kirk McCarty (2-2) allowed one run, four hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings. Emmanuel Clase worked the ninth to get his 23rd save.
McClanahan (10-4) gave up a career-high five runs, seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings — tying season-low.
“It’s just how humbling the game of baseball is,” McClanahan said. “It was just one of those days where nothing was going my way. Felt like didn’t have much life on anything that I threw. Didn’t make the adjustments and they made me pay for it.”
McClanahan’s major league-best 1.76 ERA climbed to 2.07, and the lefty had his streak of going six or more innings with two earned runs or fewer stop at 13 games.
“We didn’t hit a ton of balls hard but we hit them, and we drove his pitch count up,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “It was good that not only we drove his pitch count up but we had something to show for it because we kind of pecked him to death, but better than striking out.”
McClanahan threw 96 pitches, which was four from his season high. The four strikeouts were a season low for the ace, who is among the leaders in the majors with 158.
David Peralta, acquired from Arizona on Saturday, started in left field and went 1 for 4 in his Rays debut….
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