Feels like old times as McClanahan returns to mound

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- It had been 578 days since Shane McClanahan scaled the mound to face a hitter wearing another uniform, almost 19 months to the day since his last start at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 2, 2023.

Between then and Saturday afternoon, McClanahan endured the physical and mental grind of recovering from his second Tommy John surgery and working to return to the All-Star level he had quickly reached during his time in Tampa Bay’s rotation.

So it may have only been a Spring Training game on Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park, a 10-1 loss to the Mets, but it was a big moment for the Rays’ Opening Day starter. McClanahan pitched two innings, picked up a strikeout and worked around three hits in his first competitive action of the year.

“I’m going to take this as a win,” McClanahan said afterward. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the mound, and it felt like riding a bike.”

The Rays had seen enough from McClanahan in his bullpen and live batting practice sessions that they weren’t looking for anything but good health on Saturday. Before the game, pitching coach Kyle Snyder texted the left-hander and simply told him to enjoy the outing.

“He was definitely feeling all the emotion early, like excited and everything. It was cool to be a part of that,” said catcher Danny Jansen, who worked with McClanahan in a likely preview of the Rays’ Opening Day battery. “He’s a stud, man. It was a lot of fun to get to work with him in a game.”

McClanahan didn’t set many goals for his first start back, either. He wanted to feel good, complete two innings and get his pitch count up. He threw 35 pitches on the day, 17 in the first inning and 18 in the second, and worked in his whole four-pitch mix.

McClanahan’s fastball sat comfortably in the 95-97 mph range, according to the stadium radar gun, and he ramped one up to 99 mph to Francisco Alvarez before striking him out with an offspeed pitch.

“He looked like he was never hurt, because he was throwing 99 today,” Mets center fielder Jose Siri, McClanahan’s former teammate, said through an interpreter.

After all that time not pitching in games, McClanahan said he mostly wanted to “just get it out of the way” and get back to normal. From here, he will continue to pitch every fifth or sixth day and build up his workload, likely to the point that he works five full innings before his Opening Day start against the Rockies at Steinbrenner Field.

“Now it’s just go,” McClanahan said. “Now we get in that routine, that five-day, six-day, whatever it might be, and just get ready for Opening Day.”

McClanahan got into a jam in the second inning when he allowed back-to-back singles before hitting Luisangel Acu?a with a fastball. With the bases loaded and nobody out, he induced a flyout to center field, then Chandler Simpson got the ball in to first baseman Yandy Díaz, who fired to second base to complete a double play. McClanahan calmly retired the next batter on a groundout to escape unscathed.

Even that situation, McClanahan said, felt good.

“You don’t have that in live BP, really. You don’t have that in bullpen settings. You’ve got to dial up the compete mode just a little more,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Happy that we made a nice play between Chandler and Yandy right there for the double up, helped him out a little bit.”

The support for McClanahan was evident in the Rays’ dugout before and after his start. As he walked in after warming up in the bullpen, he made his way through a massive crowd of teammates and coaches, high-fiving and shaking hands with the intense but clearly excited McClanahan.

When McClanahan stepped off the mound, they were all still there, waiting for him.

“Felt like there was about 100 guys in the dugout today. First inning, I was like, ‘I’m going to get you guys after the next inning. I’m not walking down to get all 80 of us in here,’” McClanahan said, smiling. “It was all hugs, all smiles. It was good. It was good to be back.”