AL WILD CARD SERIES: RAYS VS GUARDIANS

October 7, 2022

Shane McClanahan

Progressive Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Postgame Press Conference

Cleveland Guardians - 2, Tampa Bay Rays - 1

THE MODERATOR: First question for Shane.

Q. How did you feel out there, obviously being able to pitch seven innings and giving your team a chance to win?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: Yeah, I felt good. I love postseason baseball, middle of October baseball. I felt I threw the ball well today. One pitch to a really good hitter and ultimately that the difference.

Q. Was that the game you expected, a pitcher's dual?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: Yeah. I think everybody kind of did. They have a great staff, good lineup, and I feel like we can say the same thing about ourselves. One-run ball game, that's a bad pitch on my part, that's just the difference.

Q. Do you think it was a bad pitch, bad location?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: Yeah, I do. I left it up. He's such a good hitter, you're not going to fool him with a bad pitch again in the same spot. Tip my hat to him, and Bieber threw a heck of a game and just got to get the next one.

Q. You talked about your team this year and how you guys have been resilient and faced a lot of different things. How is your level of confidence with the season on the line tomorrow?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: I believe in these guys a lot. I'd go to war with these guys on any day of the week. To be called on my teammates and be a part of something like this is really special for me. Postseason baseball's what you play for and the fact that I get to share a locker room and share a field with all the great group of guys we have, it's pretty special.

Q. Specifically with Glasnow tomorrow going, you feel pretty good about that?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: I think anybody would feel really good with Tyler Glasnow on the mound. The guy's a great person, he's a leader, he's a workhorse. I'm sure you guys know that. It's going to be fun to watch him do his thing.

Q. You had several innings with a runner on base and you got out of it just about every time. How good do you feel about just closing innings out like you did?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: Yeah, besides that one pitch I feel like I did a good job today minimizing the damage. If I gave up a one-out, no-out single or whatever you want to call it, I felt like I made the next pitch to help myself and help my team get out of it. I felt like I did a really good job today of attacking the zone and trusting my stuff.

Q. You mentioned the changeup got up to José, but it seemed like you had really good command of your changeup pretty much all day long, didn't you?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: Yeah, I felt like I had really good command aside from a few sailed fast balls arm side and high and that one changeup, I felt like I could put it where I needed to, and that pitch is going to kill me for a little bit.

But ultimately you got to move on, flush it, and keep working.

Q. Watching you watch the reaction did you think maybe it wasn't going to clear?

SHANE MCCLANAHAN: I'm not sure. Truthfully as a pitcher you never want to think a ball is going to get out of the yard no matter how hard they hit it and so I don't know, maybe I was naive. I didn't think it was going out. But I'm a pitcher, I never want anything to go out. So to see that keep going and just tip your hat and move on.