Just For Starters: Breaking Down Drew Rasmussen's 'Homecoming' Start in Seattle

Drew Rasmussen did a great job on his return to Washington state on Saturday night. The Spokane native pitched five innings and allowed just one run for Tampa Bay against the Mariners. Here's our ''Just For Starters'' breakdown of his night, and the cumulative averages for all Rays starters.

SEATTLE, Wash. — Drew Rasmussen had a happy homecoming on Saturday night in Seattle. The Spokane, Wash., native pitched well against his boyhood team, doing it in front of about 40 friends and family members.

Rasmussen stuck himself into a sticky situation in the third inning, with back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out. But he got out of the inning when Ty France flied out to shallow right field and the runners couldn't advance, and then Yandy Diaz made a great player and first and threw to Rasmussen just in time to get J.P Crawford at first.

Here's what Rasmussen did Saturday night, along with the cumulative numbers of the starters through 28 games so far:

Rays' Starters By The Numbers

• Starter: Drew Rasmussen
• Game: Saturday (May 7) at Seattle Mariners
• Decision: Won, to go to 3-1 on the season.
• Team result: Won, to go to 18-10 on the season.
• Innings pitched: 5.0
• Total pitches: 88
• Strikes: 57
• Runs allowed: 1
• Earned runs: 1
• Hits allowed: 5
• Walks allowed: 2
• Total strikeouts: 5
• Status upon departure: Drew Rasmussen left with a 3-1 lead after Brandon Lowe hit his second homer of the game in the top of the sixth. He was replaced by Colin Poche in the bottom of the sixth
  
• The skinny: Rasmussen was outstanding again for the third straight start, allowing just the one run and doing a great job of pitching around some traffic on the basepaths. 

Season Totals for Rays Starters

• Starters: Shane McClanahan (6), Drew Rasmussen (6), Corey Kluber
  (5), Josh Fleming (2), Luis Patino, Tommy Romero, Ryan Yarbrough
• Games: 22 (6 openers, not included in numbers)
• Decisions: 4-7 thru Monday
• Team result: 13-10 thru Monday
• Innings pitched (avg.): 98.2/4.5
• - Season high innings: 7.0, Shane McClanahan (April 24)
• - Season low innings: 2/3, Luis Patino (April 11)
• Total pitches (avg.): 1,609/73.1
• - Season high pitches: 90, Shane McClanahan (April 30)
• - Season low pitches: 13, Luis Patino (April 11)
• Total strikeouts (avg.): 106/4.8
• - Season high strikeouts: 11, Shane McClanahan (April 30)
• Runs allowed (avg.): 48/2.1
• Earned runs (avg.): 44/2.0
• Hits allowed (avg.): 86/3.9
• - Season most hits allowed: 11, Corey Kluber (April 22)
• Walks allowed (avg.): 33/1.5
• Starter ERA: 4.01