Openers OK after rotation unravels
It was way back in the early days of spring training that Charlie Montoyo predicted he would only go the “opener” route if his pitching was, well, crapola.
On Sunday, the Blue Jays skipper dipped into the opener reserves for the 12th time this season.
Not to beat a dead horse and it scarcely even matters anymore in a campaign that has turned into a throwaway — for all the grace notes of a youth-infused roster — but, hoo-boy, Montoyo has been stuck with pitching dregs.
When the bats go quiet, as they did on a sunny afternoon at the Rogers Centre — two-hit in a complete game beauty by Seattle lefty Yusei Kikuchi — it makes for a grim outcome: 7-0 wipeout, with five arms cartwheeling across the bump, Toronto dropping a series for the first time since July 26 to 28. Which left them 5-5 on the just-concluded homestand.
The likelihood is that it will be an opener again — or “beginning pitcher” as the gig was originally dubbed when Tampa Bay pulled the fake out of its hat last year — on Tuesday, a pitching aperitif before Sean Reid-Foley takes the hill against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
To recap the principle: Short of quality starters, a reliever or quasi spot starter is handed the assignment of facing a first roll through the opposition lineup — at the very least the top of the order, where the best hitters reside. Could be one inning, could be two.
When the Rays trotted out Sergio Romo on May 19, 2018 — career reliever, 580 appearances out of the bullpen to that point — he pulled out a perfect inning, dispatching the Angels trio of Zack Cozart, Mike Trout and Justin Upton. Manager Kevin Cash liked the gimmick so much that he used Romo in the same role the very next night and he threw another scoreless inning. So it became a thing. In Tampa, the prime beneficiary of an opener cadre, or “headliner” as its sometimes called, was Ryan Yarbrough, who racked up 16 wins behind a prologue pitcher.
With the first inning traditionally the highest scoring in baseball, it helps immensely if the opener is a hard thrower, catching batters flat-footed.
“It’s about the starter facing Mookie Betts or Mike Trout twice instead of three times,” Montoyo was explaining the other day, as examples, while citing former Ray Ryne Stanek as ideal for the job, versatile as an opener and in relief.
Though Montoyo, a coach in Tampa, was not at first keen on the strategy. “When I first came up with the Rays, I said, ‘What are we doing?’ Because I’m old school. But then I saw it working. Any of those guys who throw 98. Seems like guys are not ready in the first in
ning to face 98, for whatever reason. The numbers show that.”
Cottoning to the idea, Montoyo then had to convince his starters in Toronto that the scheme had merit. Starting has panache. Bringing up the rear to an opener — not so much. “It’s about communicating with the players. (Jacob) Waguespack wasn’t a big fan when we first did it. But I told him, I think the reason we beat the Yankees that day is because we did it. But I love the fact that you want to start.”
Waguespack seemed taken aback when Montoyo’s remarks were recounted to him Sunday.
“I wasn’t necessarily unhappy. I guess I just wasn’t really expecting it, maybe? You’ve got to come in and do your job like any other day. So you prepare like it would be a start and then whenever he calls your number, whether that’s the second inning or the third, you’ve got to be ready to go out there and pitch.”
Montoyo, however, doesn’t have an abundance of pitchers who throw high-90s heat, although the opener tactic hasn’t worked out too badly for the Jays. And doubtless he’ll have to veer that way plenty over the six weeks remaining on the schedule with even so-so starters in short supply.
On Sunday, Montoyo tapped Wilmer Font in the opener gambit for the fifth time since the Jays acquired the 29-yearold journeyman from the New York Mets in mid-July for cash considerations. The six-footfour Venezuelan had actually been quite reliable for Toronto, not allowing a run in 81⁄ 3 innings through his four previous “starts.” But Font gave up a leadoff home run to Kyle Seager in the second inning, so the loss was hung on him.
Font was in Tampa for part of last season, where he learned the opener ropes.
“It wasn’t that strange for me because most of my career I’ve been a starter,” said Font, who throws in the 92- to 97-m.p.h. range. “You need to have the same mentality as a starter. But at the same time, you’ve got to be aggressive, like a reliever. I feel comfortable doing it.”
That long ball to Seager came on a 3-and-2 count, carrying over Randal Grichuk’s head into the Seattle bullpen.
After two innings, Font gave way to Thomas Pannone, the starter-proper. And Pannone, whose velocity has dropped to 88 to 90 m.p.h. in recent outings, gave up jacks to Austin Nola and Tom Murphy in the fourth frame, Toronto down 4-0, no rally on the horizon.
“He’s not throwing as hard, he didn’t locate, he got hit hard,” Montoyo put it bluntly.
Keon Broxton made it a longball quartet off Sam Gaviglio in the seventh.
And that’s all she wrote.