Stroman powers Jays past Red Sox
TORONTO — Marcus Stroman was eviscerating the Boston Red Sox, and a couple of his co-workers were annoyed with him.
“If he’s going to give up a hit,” Toronto Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro said, “give it up early so I don’t have to stress out the whole game.”
That was the source of John Gibbons’ conundrum, too. Stroman dominated on Thursday in Toronto’s 8-0 win. No Boston hitter put the ball in play into the outfield until the seventh inning. Still, Stroman was having occasional command issues, despite only walking two batters.
He was at 81 pitches through five innings, 91 through six. Particularly in the case of young pitchers, pitch counts are more rigid now than they used to be.
That Stroman had not allowed a hit yet, then, was a problem. Aside from a Mike Napoli grounder that was taken away by second baseman Ryan Goins in the second inning, the Red Sox had not come particularly close.
“That was going through our minds,” Gibbons said. “You’ve got a young kid. We’re trying to win a division. We keep throwing him out there over and over. I don’t know if relieved is the word, but it didn’t hurt.
“I can’t say I’m glad he gave up a hit, but …”
It would have been a fascinating decision for Gibbons to face. Stroman is not closing in on a firm innings cap as recent call-up Aaron Sanchez is, but teams never want to unnecessarily tax a young pitcher’s arm. However, the Blue Jays only have one nohitter in franchise history — Dave Stieb’s in 1990.
It did not matter, as Shane Victorino started the seventh inning with a bloop single to centre field. Stroman called the pitch a “bad curveball,” although that seems harsh, as Victorino barely punched it over the infield.
He finished the inning, and then exited the game. What if a Blue Jay had caught Victorino’s flair, though?
“Yeah, they’re definitely watching pitches,” Stroman said. “It becomes tough. If I would have gotten into the ninth with 120, 130 pitches, it’s almost like, ‘What do you do?’ I’m pretty sure they would have let me go out there. They have that confidence to let me go now.”
Almost comically, Stroman did not think he had his best stuff on Thursday. He had trouble finding the strike zone with his four-seam fastball, and mostly abandoned it. Instead, he leaned on his two-seam fastball, a pitch with a natural sink.
“I found a grip that works for me,” Stroman said. “I throw it just like the fourseamer, and it has really good movement, really good action in the zone. I could never really control the two-seamer. I just found a grip after playing with it in several (bullpen sessions).”
After swooning for so much of June and July, the Blue Jays appear to be finding a bit of life as they head on a long road trip, one that starts Friday at Yankee Stadium, where they have lost their last 16 games.
They have won five of their first seven games coming out of the all-star break, and have found some stability after the injuries to Brett Lawrie, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind threatened to derail them.
Without a dominant top of the rotation, the Blue Jays will need Stroman to continue his convincing impersonation of an ace. He has allowed more than three runs in just one of his 10 starts, and pitched at least six innings eight times.
Sanchez’s emergence in the bullpen is a bonus; Stroman’s excellence in the rotation is a necessity.