Tampa Bay Rays Ace Endures Worst Outing of Season in This Regard

After putting together an All-Star season for the first half of the year, Tampa Bay Rays ace Shane McClanahan has struggled mightily over the last month, culminating in his worst outing of the year on Saturday.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, 6-5, as ace Shane McClanahan continued to struggle.

The hard-throwing lefty, who was named an All-Star this year, endured his worst outing of the year, allowing five earned runs over four innings.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

McClanahan did not factor into the decision Saturday, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks over four innings against Baltimore. He struck out five.

ANALYSIS
All of the damage against McClanahan came in the fourth frame, where he surrendered five total hits, including back-to-back-to-back doubles as part of a five-run inning for Baltimore. The rough inning was enough for Rays' manager Kevin Cash to pull McClanahan, marking his third time in his last four starts not reaching the fifth inning. Saturday's outing also set a season high in runs allowed for McClanahan. After a dominant start to 2023, McClanahan has struggled mightily over the last month, posting a 7.02 ERA and a 15:8 K:BB over his last four outings (16.2 innings).

McClanahan has also dealt with injuries over a portion of those starts, going on the injured list right before the All-Star break with back problems. We don't know if those are still bothering him, but it's fair to note that these poor starts coincide with those injuries. 

Overall this season, he's still been one of the best pitchers in baseball, going 11-1 with a 2.89 ERA.

But with the Rays now 1.0 game behind the Orioles in the American League East, he'll need to get right - and quick.

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