First opener just a walk in the park for Hutchison

Manager, catcher effusive in their praise in victory

• When reporters assemble at Drew Hutchison’s locker, they know what to expect. Still, they keep trying.

Hutchison, you see, seems to relish the unedifying cliché. It is almost as if he would be spilling state secrets if he were to enlighten outsiders on the strategy he uses to pacify opposing batters, which he did exceedingly well on opening day in Yankee Stadium.

He is only 24, and this was his first opening-day start for the Jays. If he was nervous, it didn’t show. He quieted a crowd of more than 48,000 by allowing the Yankees three hits and one run over six innings in a 6-1 win. Afterward he talked about it like a man who had just taken his dog for a walk.

He said he had a good changeup. The fastball and slider were good too. He liked the way catcher Russell Martin called the game. It was a good start to build on, he said.

All of which a casual observer might have deduced by paying attention to the game.

So it was up to manager John Gibbons and Martin to fill in a few gaps, which they were happy to do.

“Hutch was outstanding,” Gibbons said. “Russ really made him work, made him use all his pitches … Even behind in the count, Russ had him pitching. If he fell behind, he wasn’t just locking in – ‘here comes a fastball,’ that kind of thing.”

Now, perhaps, this investigation is making headway. We now take you to the cubicle of Martin, the new catcher, who is renowned for his distinguished guidance of a pitching staff.

Martin was given a bit of context from which to comment, to wit, that Hutchison, a right-hander, was allergic to left-handed batters last season (.817 OPS vs. .605 vs. righties). Which is why Yankees manager Joe Girardi started eight left-handed batters on Monday.

Martin said he was unaware of Hutchison’s history in that regard, but proceeded to offer words to live by for a catcher.

“I tend to not let fear get into the way I call a game,” he said. “I feel like if you stay aggressive and you have a good plan and you can trust what you’re doing out there, things work out. He just made pitches. For the most part, hitters tend to hit mistakes, and he didn’t make many of them. He was getting strike one a lot too.”

As well, Martin made sure Hutchison avoided predictable pitch patterns.

“When he was behind, we’d have him throw some offspeed pitches,” Martin said. “But for the most part, I felt like we did a good job of establishing the fastball early in the game, and I felt like we got the hitters to honour that, and then once we had them honouring the fastballs in, then we started mixing a little bit more and got some early swings. When you’re pounding the strike zone, you make the guys swing the bat early in the count. And that induces contact, and he did a good job of just mixing everything.”

Hutchison himself allowed that he turned a corner at the end of last season and followed a plan for continued improvement this spring. His explanation was classic Hutchison.

“I was able to build up and get where I needed to be and work on the things that I wanted to work on during spring training to be prepared to take the ball today and for the rest of the year,” he said.

And that’s why Hutchison was so good against the Yankees.

Hitters tend to hit mistakes, and he didn’t make many of them