McClanahan Named AL All-Star Starting Pitcher

BY LILY BELCHER The American League star pitcher and left-handed ace for the Tampa Bay Rays Shane McClanahan is set to face Los Angeles' Goliath, Clayton Kershaw, on the mound in the All Star Game tonight. Backed by a star-studded offense, led by Shohei Ohtani batting leadoff, McClanahan is prepared to make the biggest start of his career at Dodger's Stadium Tuesday night. McClanahan is a young 25-year-old fastball pitcher in his second season in the big leagues. In just 18 games and 110.2 innings pitched, he boasts 10 wins and the lowest ERA and WHIP in all the majors at 1.71 and .795, respectively. The Baltimore native has the highest strikeout to walk ratio in the American League and is tied for second with Gerrit Cole for most strikeouts at 147 (CWS Dylan Cease leads the Majors with just three more). For those of you who may not understand the weight of these stats, McClanahan is one of the best pitchers in baseball and he has the numbers to prove it. While there were some doubts McClanahan would get the start since AL All-Star Manager Dusty Baker's own pitcher, Justin Verlander, also made the roster, Baker selected the Tampa Bay starter to take the bump in the first inning. In a press conference Monday afternoon, Baker incorrectly admitted he had never seen McClanahan pitch. Baker and his Astros actually did face "Sugar Shane" in the 2020 ALCS game for 1.2 innings. However, Baker has not seen McClanahan this season and forgot McClanahan's Game 6 outing. Last week, before the starting pitchers were named for the All Star Game, McClanahan mentioned Kershaw was his idol when asked who he is looking forward to talking to during the game. McClanahan watched the 34-year-old Kershaw pitch when he was a kid and wanted to pick Kershaw's brain about his pitching technique. If you are not planning to fly to LA and purchase a tickets at record high prices, you can watch McClanahan take on Kershaw at 8 pm on FOX.