Fiers struggles with control in 7-2 loss to Blue Jays.
Usually reliable righthander has control problems
TORONTO — Frustration poured out of Mike Fiers on Saturday. He pounded his glove. He kicked the mound dirt. He shouted at himself.
He struggled with command. He sailed fastballs near the faces of Blue Jays hitters. He yanked curveballs into the dirt too shallow to tempt hitters. One curve missed so far wide of the zone the batter and catcher Brian McCann offered no more than a glance as it skipped to the backstop.
When Josh Donaldson blasted a hanging changeup for a three-run home run, Fiers did not turn to watch it soar into the lower bowl. His shoulders slouched. His arms dangled. He resembled a soaked raincoat placed on a hook to dry.
Fiers (5-4, 3.84) managed to give up only the Donaldson home run in six laborious innings, but that was enough for the Blue Jays (41-46) to extend a lead and defeat the Astros (59-29) 7-2.
The Astros’ bats, which so often had saved failing pitchers with scoring surges this season, could not uplift the team. Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman (9-5, 3.28) allowed one run and struck out six batters in seven innings. Correa’s streak ends
The Astros entered Saturday averaging 6.98 runs on the road. They totaled six hits off Stroman, which usually might be enough. But Stroman did what few starters have this year: he stymied the Astros from mounting rallies. He also ended Carlos Correa’s 15-game hit streak, which had been the longest active streak in the majors.
Stroman ranks second to Lance McCullers Jr. in ground-ball percentage. The Blue Jays turned four double plays in the first five innings.
“He wasn’t perfectly executing,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Stroman. “He fed off a little bit of the emotion of getting out of his own jams.”
After Evan Gattis singled with two outs in the sixth, Stroman stranded him by striking out Marwin Gonzalez on a fastball that neared 95 mph. Feeling the moment, Stroman bobbed his head and hyped himself up on his walk to the dugout.
On June 16, Fiers was the last Astros starter to complete seven innings. Stroman has done so three times since then. Springer in a zone
George Springer continued to prove he is locked in. He drove in the first Astros run in the third with his 21st double. With Nori Aoki on first, Springer read a curveball excellently, sitting back and clubbing it to right field. Aoki scored, which marked Springer’s 61st RBI and his 23rd in his last 25 games.
In a rotation rattled by injuries, Fiers emerged early last month as the most consistent starter, in part, because he honed his curveball.
He gesticulated most often Saturday because he could not figure out a good release point for his curve. He threw nine that appeared to miss targets by a wide margin.
“He couldn’t really throw his curveball for a strike the way he had his last handful of outings,” Hinch said. “It wasn’t really a pitch for him today.”
Hinch also said Fiers’ command suffers when he rushes his delivery.
He worked in and out of trouble through 41⁄3 innings, allowing one hit and four walks. Then he unraveled. He misfired a twoseam fastball that ran into Jose Bautista’s right hand and surrendered a single to Russell Martin.
Fiers had not given up a home run in 45 innings before Donaldson.
The Astros revived Donaldson in this series. He ended an 0-for-15 slump Thursday and his ninth home run of the season was his first in 20 games.
After inducing the final out of the fifth, Fiers balled up a fist and pounded the outside of his glove. He walked to the dugout crestfallen.
“I thought I was coming out,” Fiers said. “I had a talk with A.J. He let me stay in there.” Dragon gets torched
With the bottom of the Blue Jays’ lineup due, Hinch wanted Fiers to get through the sixth to help out the bullpen, on which Hinch increasingly has relied the last six weeks. Fiers used eight pitches for a strikeout and double play to end his quickest inning of the game.
After Fiers left, Chris Devenski crumbled.
Fresh off being named to his first All-Star team, Devenski allowed a seasonhigh four earned runs in the seventh.
Devenski said he did not have his best stuff. He gave up a single to Martin when ahead 1-2 in the count and then fell behind on the other three hitters to damage him in the inning.
After Martin’s single, Devenski walked Donaldson and surrendered an RBI double on a high changeup to Justin Smoak. It missed clearing the center field wall so narrowly the Blue Jays challenged it on replay. Two batters later, Devenski fell behind 2-0 to Troy Tulowitzki, who hit his seventh home run, a three-run shot, to make the score 7-1 Blue Jays.
“That was supposed to be a heater on the outside corner,” Devenski said. “It just leaked over the corner, and I got beat.”
Gonzalez hit his 16th home run in the ninth. hunter.atkins@chron.com twitter.com/hunteratkins35