Tulo joins Jays’ list of walking wounded
Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons may want to wrap shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in bubble wrap the next time in at Yankee Stadium.
Last year, Tulowitzki cracked a bone in his back in a collision with centre-fielder Kevin Pillar. Earlier this season, Tulowitzki suffered a quad strain in a game at Yankee Stadium. Now, it turns out that on Wednesday, in the finale of a threegame series against the Yankees, Tulowitzki tweaked a calf muscle badly enough to keep him out of Friday’s game in Cleveland.
“Not sure exactly how it happened,” said Gibbons. “He played the last few innings like that. He wasn’t going to come out.”
Coupled with Josh Donaldson’s jammed right thumb, it meant the left side of the Toronto infield was seriously weakened as they began this series against the Indians.
“(Donaldson) is feeling better but he jammed his thumb pretty hard,” said Gibbons. “We’ll give it another day. Tulo did something to his calf. When or how, I don’t know. They should both be all right (Saturday), but we’ll see.
“We’ll evaluate as we go along but it won’t be long.”
GOINS GETS THE CALL
To cover off the Tulowitzki injury, the Blue Jays called up shortstop Ryan Goins from Buffalo and optioned outfielder Darrell Ceciliani to make room on the roster.
“We had him on the move just in case,” said Gibbons. “(Tulowitzki) went out and did some stuff on the field and that’s when we decided that he needed at least one day.”
There was little doubt about who would be sent out.
“Ceciliani is the only optionable player we’ve got. Now we’ve got two infielders. Otherwise we would have to use Russell (Martin) out there (at third or short). He could do it but it’s not really necessary with Goins at short and Barney at third.”
CHANGES COMING?
There is still a chance that the starting rotation will undergo some changes as a result of Monday’s day off. Right now, Aaron Sanchez will pitch Saturday and Marcus Stroman on Sunday.
“Sanchez will pitch tomorrow, then there’s a chance we could back him off after that,” said Gibbons. “(The six-man) is not ideal but they’ve all responded so far. Through one time around, they’ve all been fine. We’ll keep running it and see how it works. If we give Sanchez a little break, then everybody else will fall in place on their regular turn.
“We’ll try to map it out and give (Sanchez) rest when he needs it.”
Gibbons did say that Marco Estrada, who threw only 59 pitches in his rain-shortened start on Tuesday, could pitch out of the bullpen on Sunday if needed.
Whether he does or doesn’t, Estrada will start on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels.
“Depending on need, Estrada will pitch out of the pen a couple of innings. It was kind of his idea. It might do him some good.”
There are no plans at all to move newly acquired Francisco Liriano out of the rotation.
“He’s here to stay,” said Gibbons.