Game 3 just another hurdle for Stroman
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman has faced, and overcome, so many obstacles in his baseball career that being down two games to none in the American League Championship Series hardly registers on his pressure gauge.
“We might get down in the series, but you could never tell if you walked in our clubhouse,” Stroman said as the teams conducted their day-off workouts Sunday at Rogers Centre. “We keep an upbeat, very positive nature, and we know we’re capable of getting the job done.”
Turning a negative into a positive is something Stroman has done all his life.
The 24-year-old right-hander wasn’t even supposed to pitch at all this season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during spring training.
However, he used the downtime to work diligently on his rehab — while at the same time taking classes at Duke to complete his degree in sociology.
“It says a lot about the kid, too, that he blows out his knee in spring training, goes off and finishes his degree, does his rehab and now he’s back pitching in the playoffs,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.
“That shows you what kind of motivation he has, what kind of focus.”
Even before the injury, Stroman had to overcome preconceived notions that a pitcher who stands 5-8 could not succeed in the majors.
“His father always preached to him, ‘You’re going to be the smallest guy in the room, but that doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish something,’ ” Gibbons said. “So I think he’s always had that mentality, that personality, ‘I’ve got to prove myself over and over.’ ”
At Sunday’s news conference, Stroman wore a cap with “HDMH” on it. It stands for, “Height doesn’t measure heart.”
“It’s my trademark,” Stroman explained. “You have a bunch of baseball analysts and all these people who preach 6-foot-4 for pitchers.
“I’m just here to show them that you don’t have to be 6-foot-5 to go out there and be an awesome pitcher in the big leagues.”
Stroman came back from his injury to make four starts in September, going 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA in 27 innings. He has started twice more in the playoffs, including decisive Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Texas Rangers, in which he allowed two earned runs in six innings.
Like Stroman, the Kansas City Royals’ Johnny Cueto started and delivered for his team in a do-ordie Game 5 his last time out.
Cueto allowed an early home run but retired the last 19 Houston Astros he faced to propel the Royals into the ALCS.
“Game No. 5 was a decisive game. You win, you keep going. You lose, you go home,” he said Sunday. “And my mentality was I’m going to give it — I’m going to give everything I’ve got as long as I can.”
Cueto, who was 11-13 with a 3.44 ERA in the regular season, was acquired from the Cincinnati Reds to be the Royals’ ace down the stretch, but it didn’t really work out that way. In 13 starts with Kansas City, he went 4-7 with a 4.76 ERA.
However, the Dominican right- hander started and picked up the win on the final day of the regular season, a win that secured homefield advantage for the Royals throughout the postseason.
Kansas City manager Ned Yost has to like the way things have turned out, with Cueto looking much more like the pitcher who finished second in National League Cy Young Award voting last season to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw.
“I don’t think Johnny’s confidence was suffering any at that point,” Yost said. “I just feel like he was preparing himself for the playoffs at the end of the year so that, when he got here, he could ... bam, get after it.”
Young rounds out rotation:
The Blue Jays established their starting rotation at the beginning of the series, but there was an unanswered question of who would start Game 4 for the Royals.
Yost was coy with the news media when questioned in Kansas City, saying he had chosen a starter “and his name is Chris.” However, he wouldn’t clarify whether he meant Chris Young or Kris Medlen.
Tall Chris or short Kris? Spelled with a Cora K?
“The big tall one,” Yost finally revealed Sunday in reference to 6-10 Young.
“They’re both great choices, but, you know, Chris Young, his last two starts of the year were really, really good for us,” Yost said. “We feel like he gives us a good chance to win.”
Young allowed one earned run and four hits over 11 1⁄3 innings in his final two starts of the regular season. He appeared once in a relief role in this year’s ALDS, going four innings, allowing one run and striking out seven in Game 1 against Houston.
Home sweet home:
The Blue Jays went an AL-best 53-28 at home in the regular season, averaging a major league-leading 5.6 runs a game at Rogers Centre.
However, they could muster only three runs in the first two games of the ALCS in Kansas City.
“We’re built for our park, we’re built for our division we play in and things like that,” Gibbons said. “Really, that’s our trademark. If we’re going to win, we need to score.”