Stroman, Jays turn things around in Arizona
Right-hander puts Oakland start behind him, gets help from bats of Donaldson, Encarnacion
PHOENIX— There was a lot going on that was good on Wednesday at Chase Field as the Blue Jays beat the Diamondbacks 10-4 and swept them on the desert floor.
Marcus Stroman was back riding the learning curve in an upward direction.
Darwin Barney increased his value with a solid game in left field, batting leadoff, while contributing a triple and a sacrifice fly.
Edwin Encarnacion built his jaw-dropping legend, crushing a mammoth 471foot homer that was headed for the street until it hit the back wall.
And Josh Donaldson pounded a homer, with a double and three RBIs, and even showed frustration on a ball he flied out to left.
For Stroman it was a chance to show the baseball world that his performance coming out of the all-star break was simply an aberration, showing his inexperience in dealing with extra down time and limited get-ready time. He used that opportunity.
“You can’t weigh in too much on previous starts,” Stroman said. “You watch them (on video) the next day and kind of move forward.
“I didn’t command the ball as good in Oakland (on Friday). Spinning pitches were kind of left more in the middle. I just had better action on my pitches today.
“It’s just a matter of locking it in and commanding and competing every five (days).”
Following in the footsteps of his friend and fellow starting rotation prodigy, Aaron Sanchez, the 25year-old Stroman shut down the Diamondbacks on one run through eight innings, moving the Jays to a season-high 12 games above .500. Hitting in a National League park, Stroman reached base twice, scored a run and laid down a sacrifice. When Arizona reliever Daniel Hudson threw his eighth-inning bunt into centre field, Stroman scampered into second base with a perfect slide.
“It’s exciting, it just kind of brings back being at Duke (where he played college baseball),” Stroman said. “When I get to be out there doing that and running the bases and doing all that . . . anyway I can contribute to help this team win, I’m more than willing to do.”
Though he waited until his final at-bat, Encarnacion continued his domination of the desert environment and the Diamondbacks. Facing Hudson in the eighth, with Barney on third base, Encarnacion absolutely crushed a baseball for his longest homer of the year. It was his ninth home run in eight games at Chase Field with Toronto. And it gave him 223 homers with the Jays, tying him for third on the franchise list with Vernon Wells.
The Jays came out strong in one of their favourite ballparks in which to swing the bats. Barney laced a slicing one-hopper towards second base that fooled Jean Segura. He took a step to his right and fell on his butt as the ball scooted by him into right field. Then Donaldson crushed a 2-0 pitch to right field that splashed into the D’backs swimming pool for a two-run homer.
Donaldson also had a two-run double on Sunday to beat the A’s in Oakland. He has hit safely in 31 of his last 36 games, batting .404 with 25 extra-base hits. If there was a glitch in Oakland, when the Jays lost the first two games after the break, Donaldson feels they’re past that.
“Early on, you’re trying to get back to playing,” he said. “Some guys had some days off, get back in the flow of things and we were able to take it back up pretty quick. We didn’t play bad in Oakland. We lost two games, but they won those games . . . It’s nice to finish strong here and we’re going to have a pretty good homestand, so hopefully it continues.”
Barney, normally an infielder, was making his first major-league appearance in left field and his first at the position at any level since 2006 as a member of the U.S. national team. In the second, he made a catch deep in the alley in left-centre field and then ended the inning racing towards the third base stands into foul territory. It relaxed him.
“I was more worried about . . . moving in on ground balls and trying to put pressure in runners not to take extra bases,” Barney said. “Just remember you’re just catching a baseball and playing the game.”
Brett Cecil came on to pitch the ninth, as manager John Gibbons continues to look for consistency from his top left-hander. But Cecil allowed a three-run homer to Tuffy Gosewisch and was replaced with one out by Joe Biagini.
“We need (Cecil), if we’re going to be there again we need him to be good,” Gibbons said. “We put him in for an inning of work . . . He got (Jake) Lamb and then bam, bam, bam . . .
“We need him better than that, that’s for damn sure.”