Jun 15, 11:11am | 4 min read

Rays vs. White Sox Prediction: MLB Picks, Odds & Betting

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Jason Radowitz is back on OddsChecker giving his picks for Rays vs. White Sox

ANALYSIS

Rays vs. White Sox Prediction - June 15

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago White Sox

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 – 8:10pm EST

Guaranteed Rate Field

Probable Pitchers:

Rays: Shane McClanahan (2-1, 4.54 ERA)
White Sox: Dallas Keuchel (5-1, 4.14 ERA)

The Tampa Bay Rays continue to find ways to win. They’re now 43-24 on the year after their 5-2 victory over the White Sox on Monday.

The Rays will look to continue their momentum against the White Sox behind Shane McClanahan who has only gone 6.1 innings in two starts through June this season. He’s allowed seven runs off 10 hits but has struck out 10 while walking five.

It hasn’t been the best start to the month but in the last 30 days, McClanahan has an XFIP of 3.56 and a strikeout rate of 28.6 percent.

What has hurt him has been his batting average of balls in play being .350 and walks at 10 percent.

Now he’ll take on a White Sox lineup that has not performed against lefties like they did earlier in the season. Only Jose Abreu and Andrew Vaughn have been hitting for consistent power against lefties in the last 30 days. The projected lineup has a .170 ISO and a .304 wOBA with a strikeout rate sitting at 25.2 percent.

This is a solid spot for McClanahan to rack up strikeouts and stick around in the game beyond three innings.

On the other hand, Dallas Keuchel will take the mound for the White Sox. He’s only lost one game all year so that shows just how good he has been to keep the White Sox in every game he pitches in.

Keuchel has allowed just three earned runs in 12 innings in June and has 11 strikeouts to just three walks. For a guy who isn’t known for his strikeouts, he found a bit of rhythm against the Blue Jays in his last start.

He will allow singles here and there but due to his high ground ball rate, he’s able to induce plenty of ground ball double plays to get out of jams when he needs to.

The Rays lineup hasn’t been all that against lefties this season and especially in the last 30 days. They’re hitting a .134 ISO and .304 wOBA against lefties in the last 30 days. Only Manuel Margot, Taylor Walls and Mike Zunino are getting on base at a consistently solid level. The rest are striking out.

There’s reason to believe that Keuchel can continue to strike out a high amount of batters in this start just like he did against the Blue Jays. The Rays are also hitting ground balls nearly 47 percent of the time against lefties so that’s going to be great for Keuchel in this start.

Overall, I like McClanahan to rebound and pitch better in this game against the White Sox who have not nearly been as good against lefties in the last 30 days or so. On top of that, Keuchel is finally showing some strikeout potential and is inducing ground ball rates at an extreme level. The Rays do both of those plenty of times against lefties, meaning Keuchel should have a solid outing inducing ground balls and getting strikeouts.

Let’s take the under in the first five innings at 4.5 here.