Fresh off their first three-game sweep of the New York Yankees in five years, the Tampa Bay Rays will look to reverse recent struggles against the host Chicago White Sox in the opener of a three-game set on Tuesday.
Chicago has gone 4-2 against Tampa Bay in each of the past two seasons after the Rays ran away with the 2023 season series 6-1.
Tuesday’s pitching matchup features a pair of left-handers in Shane McClanahan of Tampa Bay and Chicago’s Noah Schultz, who will make his major league debut.
Schultz, 22, earned a promotion from Triple-A Charlotte after starting 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three appearances, including two starts, with 19 strikeouts in 14 innings. Per MLB Pipeline, Schultz is the organization’s No. 2 prospect.
The White Sox selected the 6-foot-10 Schultz 26th overall in the 2022 draft out of Oswego East High School, about 45 minutes southwest of Chicago.
“He’s about as nice a guy and polite a guy as can be, but he does have an edge when he goes out there and pitches, which you love to see,” White Sox manager Will Venable said.
McClanahan (0-1, 4.15 ERA) is set to face a Chicago club for the second straight start. Against the visiting Cubs on April 6, he scattered two runs and one hit in four innings with four walks and five strikeouts. McClanahan, who turns 29 on April 28, was critical of his lack of command and aspired to “clean it up.”
In four career starts against the White Sox, McClanahan is 2-1 with a 3.27 ERA and 27 strikeouts over 22 innings.
Tampa Bay climbed above .500 with a 5-4 victory against the visiting Yankees on Sunday. Drew Rasmussen yielded one hit in six scoreless innings while leadoff man Chandler Simpson sparked the attack with three hits, two runs, an RBI and a stolen base.
Contributions have come from throughout the lineup in the first few weeks, a trend the Rays are eager to maintain.
“I think it just shows we’ve got to keep doing our process, keep trusting that they’ve put a really good roster together,” reliever Mason Englert said.
“Performance in a small sample size can go up and down, but if we continue to execute the controllables over and over, we have huge faith that the results are going to follow.”
Chicago carries similar faith in its approach. After getting shut out in the middle two games of their four-game weekend set in Kansas City, the White Sox regrouped for a 6-5 victory on Sunday to earn a split.
Tanner Murray smacked his first career home run and Colson Montgomery also went deep to kick-start an offense that had not produced more than three runs since April 4.
“We are not trying to look too much into it,” Montgomery said. “We all know it’s one game away, one hit away, one at-bat away. So, kind of just have to keep looking toward those things.
“If we just keep having our heads down, keep doing what we need to do, keep a positive mindset with it all, realize that we’ve had 30 freaking at-bats, 40 at-bats, things are going to start turning. If we believe that, then it will happen.”
–Field Level Media
