One win away...
Shane McClanahan finished his 2026 just as he spent most of it - excellently - as he led the Rays to a 5-2 win in Game 5 to head to Atlanta up 3-2 in the Series. His only blemish was a 2-run homer allowed to Joey Gallo, the 10th of the postseason for the lefty slugger which ties him with former Ray Randy Arozarena (2020) for the all-time single-postseason record. But that was little consolation to Gallo as Rays hitters were fairly relentless, banging out 13 hits as they probably should have scored another 2-3 runs but the 5 they did was quite sufficient with the key sequence in the 3rd when with two out Albies singled in a run and Tork followed with a 2-run blast off Max Fried. John Swanda will try to pitch the Rays to immortality in two days at Truist Park.