Shane McClanahan hurled six shutout innings, Jose Siri homered in his first at-bat, and the host Tampa Bay Rays started their 2023 campaign with a 4-0 win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In his second straight Opening Day assignment, ace McClanahan (1-0) won the battle of left-handed starting pitchers against Detroit’s Eduardo Rodriguez (0-1).
McClanahan allowed just four hits and five baserunners in his season debut. The American League’s All-Star Game starter last year, McClanahan fanned six and walked one across 87 pitches.
Siri slugged a third-inning homer and Wander Franco went deep leading off the eighth. Randy Arozarena and pinch hitter Luke Raley notched RBI singles in the sixth.
Detroit’s Rodriguez tossed 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits. He struck out five and walked two. Austin Meadows was 3-for-4 with a double as each club produced six hits.
To open his final season, Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, 39, went 1-for-4 with a double in his 2,700th game.
Wearing their Devil Rays uniforms from their inaugural 1998 season, Tampa Bay got the game’s first lead when Siri jumped on an 89-mph cutter from Rodriguez leading off the third inning. Siri took advantage of the flat, center-cut pitch, ripping a shot to left an estimated 393 feet for the 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Rays got to Rodriguez for two more runs as reliever Jason Foley gave up consecutive RBI singles to Arozarena and Raley.
With Colin Poche on for the Rays in the seventh, the Tigers brought the potential tying run to the plate with two outs. But right fielder Manuel Margot stopped the threat with a diving grab near the foul line off a twisting drive by Ryan Kreidler.
Franco swatted his first homer to left-center off Mason Englert, making his major league debut, in the eighth.
Poche, Jason Adam and Pete Fairbanks each pitched an inning, allowing just two hits and two walks to round out the shutout.
The game lasted 2 hours, 14 minutes under the new pitch clock rules.
–Field Level Media
