Guaranteed win won’t guarantee next start
Todd Redmond stuck his head into John Gibbons’ office to say hello on his first day back in the majors. The Blue Jays manager was in the middle of his morning media session. Asked for a game prediction by Gibbons, the 30-year-old Redmond absolutely guaranteed a win. Maybe not quite up to the Joe Namath brashness category, but for a pitcher who had been designated for assignment — cut from the Jays just 32 days earlier — and was now being asked to start in the majors for the first time since Sept. 29, 2013, it was bold nonetheless.
“I said we were going to win. I didn’t say I was going to win,” Redmond smiled.
Redmond worked just four innings, allowing three runs on four hits, exiting the game with the lead on the way to a 10-6 victory. Roberto Osuna earned his first big-league win, becoming at 20, the youngest in franchise history with a victory. Ultimately it was a big two-out, two-run single by Russell Martin that brought the Jays from behind and a tape-measure two-run blast by Jose Bautista into an empty 300-level suite that put the decision away.
“That’s what you need, a two-out hit (when) you’re down,” Gibbons said. “Two-out hits are tough to come by, anyway. Russell’s got big hit after big hit in those kind of situations. Tight game where you really need something. He’s been that guy who always seem to come through for us.”
The afternoon featured a flash of temper by fiery third baseman Josh Donaldson in the sixth inning that sparked a heated exchange between the two dugouts and may result in some sort of fine for Donaldson.
“We said something to the umpire on the 0-1 pitch to Donaldson, and Donaldson started yelling at our dugout,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia explained.
“A lot of guys in our dugout took exception to him yelling at our dugout. We weren’t even talking to him. We were talking to the umpire.”
When Donaldson returned to the dugout after striking out against Mike Morin, he continued the antagonism, as cameras caught him with an easily read expletive spat across the field.
“I’m not here to try and badmouth,” Donaldson said. “I played against these guys for a long time (as a member of the Oakland A’s). They know the competitor that I am and I think I just kind of got caught up in the heat of the moment. I’m not here to try and throw anyone under the bus. But there was obviously something said to me. At the end of the day, I try to turn the page from it and see what happens.”
The question for Gibbons was why he inserted Redmond into the rotation for one start, when nobody in the current five is injured or needed an extra day?
“We’re on that long stretch with no off days,” Gibbons explained of the current 20-games-in-20-days challenge. “Give everybody a little break. We did it last year and it worked out OK, so we’ll try it again. You can’t do it a lot, but maybe that’ll help.”
There’s more to it than that. The Jays have now aligned themselves where they can make a decision on when to bring back Daniel Norris and whether he will replace Marco Estrada or Aaron Sanchez in the rotation. If the Jays are going to change anything, including their bad karma, a move has to be made.
The team can no longer maintain the status quo with its pitching staff. Aligning Estrada’s next start with Norris’s schedule in Buffalo gives the Jays flexibility. Now it comes down to the timing of when they want to bring Norris back. Gibbons and GM Alex Anthopoulos hinted that nothing will happen this week, meaning Estrada is likely to make his Friday start, the same day Norris starts for Buffalo.
“He’s getting better, consistency is what we’re looking for,” Gibbons said of Norris. “Ideally he’s back up here in the near future, hopefully. We want to make sure he’s ready.” And to be clear on their options. Option 1: If Sanchez has a solid starts on Tuesday and Sunday and if Estrada falters Friday, the Jays could promote Norris to take Estrada’s May 27 start against the White. Then Estrada could head back to the bullpen in middle relief.
Option 2: If Sanchez continues to struggle with his control and command, and if Estrada keeps progressing as a useful No. 5 starter, then Norris could be recalled for the May 27 start and Estrada bumped back three days to take over from Sanchez. The hard-throwing Sanchez could join Brett Cecil as a co-closer.
It is the one internal change dramatic enough to wake up this team. Osuna could work earlier in games, Sanchez could pare down his repertoire, and the Jays would be better.