TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Rays starter Shane McClanahan started strong in 2023, but he has had a rough stretch of starts since the end of June.
McClanahan has made 21 starts, has a 3.29 ERA, and is 11-2 on the season. Since the end of June he’s had two outings where he’s only lasted four innings and has given up five runs.
The first was against Baltimore on July 22, and the latest was on Wednesday night against the New York Yankees. He gave up five runs on five hits, including two home runs—one by Anthony Volpe and the other by Giancarlo Stanton.
Even worse, it seems McClanahan, who has one Tommy John surgery under his belt already, injured his forearm, or at least felt something in it before the fourth inning started, and he continued to pitch.
He showed no ill effects in that inning, which was clean, but alarm bells usually go off whenever a pitcher complains of tightness in or around the forearm. Especially one with a previous surgery.
Ulises Sambrano and Kevin Weiss, hosts of the Locked On Rays podcast, discussed McClanahan’s rough patch and injury on the latest episode of their show.
“One of the big storylines of this game, maybe the biggest storyline from this game, was Shane McClanahan only going four innings and getting punched around for five earned runs, including two bombs,” said Weiss. “Something is going not too well for him as his last six starts have been very uncharacteristic for him as well.”
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Rays manager Kevin Cash said he wasn’t “overly concerned” about the possible injury to McClanahan’s forearm, but the Rays sent him back to Tampa for testing.
The bright spot is the tightness McClanahan felt was on the outside of his forearm. Usually when it is the inside, that is when Tommy John concerns come into play.
The lefthander told reporters after the Rays’ 7-2 loss, “It just grabbed and wouldn’t let go, and I was like, ‘This is kind of interesting.’ I’m not going to speculate. I’m not going to make any assumptions. We’re just going to take it day by day and see what comes up.”
Before that tough run of six starts began, McClanahan was one of the best pitchers in baseball. In 15 starts, he was 11-1 with a 2.12 ERA. He had 97 strikeouts in only 89 and one-third innings, and he surrendered 33 walks. Since June 22, he’s 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA.
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