Sanchez blames blister for his shortest start since April.
Young starter admits problems with finger affected his outing against Boston
If anyone should know how to deal with complaints about hot spots, it would be Blue Jays ownership, the folks at Rogers that provide your wireless.
But when it’s young Jays starter Aaron Sanchez being affected by a hot spot to his middle finger — bordering on a blister as he was on Sunday — there is reason for concern at Blue Jays’ headquarters.
The club is ready to back Sanchez off his next start.
The Jays ended up losing to the Red Sox 11-8 in the rubber game of a weekend series that could have lifted John Gibbons’ troops back into a tie for first place in the AL East, a position they held for 25 days until being swept out of Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
Along with left-hander J.A. Happ, Sanchez had become the most reliable starting pitcher in the second half of the season. In the first half there were four starters Toronto could rely upon.
The 24-year-old Sanchez is important. He was the man Gibbons wanted and had, in fact, manipulated to face the Red Sox in the final game of this big series. But in the fourth inning at the Rogers Centre, after he had already allowed four runs and following a double by Dustin Pedroia, Gibbons hustled to the mound with trainer George Poulis to have a look at the hot spot on Sanchez’s digit the pitcher later admitted was affecting command of his off-speed pitches. Sanchez remained on the hill for one more hitter.
But after Xander Bogaerts’ gametying single, he was gone.
“He’s going to get a little break,” Gibbons confirmed.
“The next time he pitches will be (at the end of ) that (West Coast) road trip, so he’s going to get a few days’ break. Time has got to let that heal. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I think (the hot spot) is the start of something, but it will get a little time to heal there.”
For Sanchez, it was a day of mostly negatives, some of them beyond his control. In the first inning with two outs, superman Kevin Pillar in centre field found kryptonite off the bat of Mookie Betts, breaking in as the ball sailed over his head for a double, scoring David Ortiz all the way from first. Then in the second, Sanchez and catcher Russell Martin thought they had Jackie Bradley Jr. struck out on a 1-2 pitch, but later in the at-bat he crushed a three-run homer to left-centre field.
“I’m not here to make excuses,” Sanchez said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got a job to do. For me it was to give my team a chance to win the game. I just have to go a little deeper than 32⁄ (innings). We’ll see how it
3 goes.
“I’ve had these (blisters) come and go throughout the year. It’s been something that I’ve dealt with since I left spring training. I feel like I’ve got a good grip on it, but it was just one of those days. It is what it is, I’m not worried.”
The Sanchez start on Sunday was his shortest since April 11 at Baltimore. Six earned runs matched his career-high for the fourth time. In his six starts since Aug. 6 and surrounding his pseudo-demotion for 10 days to Class-A Dunedin, Sanchez is 2-1 with a 5.08 ERA, with 33 hits, 14 walks and 22 strikeouts in 332⁄
3 innings. The positive is that the first two starts after his mini-vacation were both quality ones, posting a 2.08 ERA in 13 innings.
Gibbons clearly feels it’s time for another break.
“I’m not the type of player who’s going to want to come out for something like that,” Sanchez said. “But this late in the season, you’ve got to be smart. He took me out before it got too bad, so we’ll move on.”
For Gibbons, “moving on” might mean something slightly different than it does for Sanchez. For the manager, over the next 10 days — 10 games with no days off — all six members of the cumbersome sixman rotation will be utilized in starting roles. And expect some to be more equally utilized than others.
In the wake of Sunday’s various struggles with the right-hand middle finger blister, the Red Sox hitters and home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, Sanchez will have the next eight days off before his next start Sept. 21, the finale of the Mariners series at Safeco Field.
Gibbons suggested Sanchez would be available in relief at some point during his starting break, if needed. That means he won’t start in Anaheim, in front of family and friends trucking in from nearby Barstow. But he may still pitch.
Meanwhile, Monday’s starter, left-hander Francisco Liriano, will draw another assignment on the trip to California, either the Friday or Saturday at the Big A against the Angels, with forgotten knuckleballer R.A. Dickey drawing the other start, both benefitting from the heavy night air of Anaheim.
The other three Jays rotation members — Happ, Marcus Stroman and Marco Estrada — will each stay on his regular four days’ rest, pitching on the fifth.
Returning from the West Coast swing, there is an off day Sept. 22. The rest of the season will be mapped out at that point. But as it shapes up, the season’s final series in Boston, Big Papi weekend at Fenway, it would be Sanchez handed the ball on Sunday if it means something to the division or the wild-card race.
The task now is to regroup as a team and make those games meaningful.
“I’ve had these (blisters) come and go throughout the year. It’s been something I’ve dealt with since spring training.” AARON SANCHEZ