Canadian pitchers selected on Day 2
Canadian pitchers Zach Pop and Daniel Procopio were both chosen on Day 2 of the MLB Draft on Tuesday, bringing the total of Canadian players selected to four over the first 10 rounds.
The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Pop, a Brampton, Ont., native pitching at the University of Kentucky, with their seventhround selection.
The Los Angeles Angels used their 10th-round selection on Toronto’s Procopio, a righthanded pitcher out of Niagara University.
Pop spent the 2017 season pitching as the Wildcats’ set-up man and appeared in 22 games. He struck out 20 in 20 2⁄3 innings, giving up 19 hits and holding batters to a .247 average.
Pop was a 23rd-round selection of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013 but did not sign with the club. Later that year, he helped Canada to a bronze medal at the under-18 Pan American Championships in La Paz, Mexico.
Procopio started 12 games for the Purple Eagles and went 6-4 with a 4.19 earned-run average. He had 75 strikeouts over 58 innings and limited batters to a .203 average.
Procopio represented Canada in 2013 at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan. He was drafted by the New York Mets in 22nd round of the 2013 MLB Draft as a high school player.
On Monday, right-handed pitcher Landon Leach of Pickering, Ont., became the first Canadian selected in this year’s draft when the Minnesota Twins used the first pick in the second round, 37th overall, to draft the 17-year-old.
Shortstop Adam Hall of London, Ont., was taken 23 picks later by the Baltimore Orioles.
Leach joined Canada’s junior national team program in the spring of 2016 and recently participated in the Dominican Summer League camp in May, where he threw four innings without giving up an earned run against MLB Prospect League, a squad featuring some of the top international players eligible to sign with big league clubs on July 2.
Hall, 18, joined the junior national team program as a 15-year-old in the fall of 2014 before representing Canada at the 2015 under-18 baseball World Cup in Osaka, Japan. In 2016, he was the lone Canadian to participate in both the Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field in Chicago and the Perfect Game All American Game at Petco Park in San Diego.
The final day of the MLB Draft goes today.
TORONTO — The Blue Jays’ bid to get to .500 this season took another hit Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay rookie Jake Faria handcuffed Toronto over 61⁄3 innings and the Rays tormented Jays starter Marco Estrada en route to an 8-1 victory.
It marked Toronto’s sixth attempt this season (0-1, 1-2, 26-27, 27-28, 28-29, 31-32) to reach the .500 mark — for the first time.
“We will get there. Hopefully, sooner rather than later,” said manager John Gibbons. “Of course, that’s frustrating. You keep climbing back, and it was a battle to get back to that point to even get close.”
It was a third straight loss for Estrada, who had more hits than outs on his 3 1⁄3 -inning pitching line. He gave up six earned runs on a career-high 12 hits in an 81-pitch outing fraught with peril.
“There’s no doubt, it was a tough night for him,” Gibbons said. “Really, Marco’s a pinpoint control guy for the most part. I think that’s off for him right now. I thought he actually looked better in the early part of the game, but they threw out a lot of hits on him. … He’ll work it out.”
Estrada has given up 17 earned runs in 122⁄3 innings in his last three starts, posting a 12.07 earned-run average.
He has lost his last six outings against Tampa, including three this season.
“I felt pretty good out there,” Estrada said. “It’s unfortunate this went down this way. It sucks. I know I’ve been in a bit of a funk the last few outings, but I’m not worried about it. I feel pretty good out there. I know things are going to change for me. They’ve had my number all year, I don’t know. It just sucks.”
Tampa (35-32) has won six of its last seven games. Toronto (31-33) saw its modest two-game win streak snapped before 39,404 on a glorious evening with the Rogers Centre roof open.
“That’s probably the most people I’ve ever thrown in front of in my life, so it’s cool to hear them getting after it, cheering,” said Faria (2-0).
“It’s pretty fun.” MINNEAPOLIS — Eddie Rosario hit three home runs and drove in five runs and the Minnesota Twins set a franchise record with 28 hits while batting around in two different innings of a 20-7 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
Max Kepler and Brian Dozier also went deep, Eduardo Escobar had five hits and two RBIs and Jason Castro had four hits and four RBIs for the Twins, who are in first place in the AL Central despite an AL-worst 13-19 record at Target Field.