Loup likes being overlooked
As Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup stood beside his locker talking to a reporter, teammate Darwin Barney looked over and yelled, “Two days in a row?”
“Yeah, I know right,” Loup replied with a smile.
Barney was joking around. Sort of. He was just shocked that a middle reliever was actually talking to the media two days in a row. That’s rare.
On Monday, in the Blue Jays’ 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre, Loup struck out three batters over 1.2 innings and stranded both inherited runners. The left-hander has now allowed only four of 29 inherited runners to score this season — a 86.2 per cent success rate that is fourth best among American League leaders.
“For whatever reason I seem to elevate my game when I come in with guys on,” said Loup.
But, after Monday’s win, the media throng gathered for starting pitcher Nick Tepesch, who won his first game as a Jay, and Josh Donaldson, whose two-run blast in the first inning was all the offence Toronto needed. Only a small handful waited around for Loup, which is par for the course. As manager John Gibbons said, the middle relievers often are the reason why a team wins, but they rarely get the credit or the ink. Gibbons said Loup’s work in the seventh and eighth innings was key to the victory — the link between Tepesch and closer Roberto Osuna, who picked up his 30th save.
“I like it that way,” said Loup, when asked if he felt overlooked for his performance. “I’ve always been a low key guy. Being involved in the media and the hype has never been my deal anyway. I’ve always liked to fly under radar. It doesn’t bother me at all. But, yeah, usually most of the time when you get talked to, it’s when you end up blowing the game.”
Loup, who has been in the Jays’ organization since being drafted in the ninth round in 2009, said it’s a running joke with middle relievers that usually when they finally do get some attention, it’s not because of a good appearance.
“But, we definitely joke about it,” he said. “We say, ‘They only want to talk to us when we blow a game.’ We just kind of mess around about that.”
Loup has had an up and down season, but is on a roll right now. He owns a 2.25 ERA with a .186 opponent’s average over his last 10 games. Monday’s appearance was his 300th career game, only the eighth Toronto reliever to reach that number. He is now two games shy of tying Mike Timlin for seventh on the all-time club relief appearance lists. Among Toronto left-handed relievers, Loup ranks second behind Scott Downs, who made 329 relief appearances as a Jay. But, admit it, the only time you think about Loup, or any of his middle relief comrades, is when he screws up.
“But, I’ve been doing it long enough that I’ve just come to accept it,” said the Raceland, LA native. “I mean sometimes you would like a little pat on the back, ‘You did a nice job.’ But other than that it’s not really a big deal.
“I’ve always told Gibby, ‘I don’t care when I’m pitching. I don’t need to be a late inning guy. I don’t need to be the guy closing the game.’ I said, ‘Whenever you think the game is on the line and you need somebody to get out of it, I want to be the guy that you think about, that you can trust to be able to do that,’ ” said Loup. “Not having an (established) role never bothered me. But knowing that (the manager) trusts you to be in those situations to get out of it is big.”
The key for any left-handed reliever, of course, is to get lefties out, but Loup has had his problems at times doing that this season (lefty hitters have hit .282 against him, compared to .238 by righties). That’s why Gibbons was so happy with his performance on Monday.
“The big thing for me is commanding my fastball — against lefties and righties,” said Loup. “But I think the other thing, the times I struggle, I usually don’t have my secondary stuff to get hitters off my fastball. (But) lately I’ve kind of had a little more consistency with my off speed stuff. Whether it’s been my change-up or my breaking ball, I’m able to get those over and kind of gives the hitter something else to think about and kind of get them off my heater a little more.”
CINCINNATI — Milos Raonic has withdrawn from the Western & Southern tennis tournament with a left wrist injury, leaving the Masters 1000 event with only three of the top-10 players on the ATP Tour.
“My wrist injury has not healed,” Raonic said in a statement posted on the event’s Twitter feed. “I always play well in Cincinnati and will miss the great fans.”
Raonic lost 6-4, 6-4 to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the second round of last week’s Rogers Cup in Montreal, saying after the match that the wrist injury had flared up.
Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., is ranked 10th on the ATP Tour. The talented player has been dogged by multiple injuries throughout his career.
With Raonic’s withdrawal, only Montreal champion Alex Zverev, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem remain from the ATP’s top 10 in the draw.