BY MIKE CORMACK
sportsnet.ca
As far as major league debuts go, the Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t have asked for much more from Zach Stewart.
It just didn’t result in a victory. The 23-year-old Blue Jays prospect tossed a quick and impressive seven innings in Toronto’s 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Thursday afternoon in front of 31,822 at Rogers Centre.
Called up on Tuesday from double-A New Hampshire to fill the void in the rotation vacated when Kyle Drabek was dispatched to triple-A Las Vegas, Stewart pounded the strike zone with an impressive sinker and held Balitmore hitters to two runs, seven hits, one walk and three strike outs.
With several friends and family members in attendance, the 2008 third round draft pick admitted to some pre-game jitters, but quickly calmed down once on the mound.
"When I first got out there I was pretty nervous, but eventually I got settled in," he said. "Once I got through the warmup and the first pitch, I was like, ‘it’s still baseball.’"
The man Baseball America ranked as Toronto’s top pitching prospect prior to the Roy Halladay trade cruised through his first five innings of major league work, but in the sixth a leadoff home run to left from J.J. Hardy and a one-out Vladimir Guerrero double cashed in Nick Markakis to put the Orioles in front 2-0. Stewart settled down from there to strike out Luke Scott swinging and get Derek Lee to fly out to right to strand Guerrero at second.
"They obviously hit mistakes," said Stewart when asked to explain the biggest difference between double-A and major league hitters. "They’re here for a reason, so you can’t mess up too much. There’s good hitters at every level, but these guys…when you make a mistake they get on it pretty well."
Following a mistake-free seventh, Stewart’s day was done at an economical 86 pitches (55 for strikes), a ratio he credits to his quick-tempo on the hill. "I’ve actually had people tell me to slow down because I’ve always been a quick worker and sometimes I don’t take a step back and think about things," he explained. "But I also feel the quicker I work, the more I’m staying in the zone and not losing focus."
Stewart’s counterpart -- Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie -- also cruised through the first five innings, surrendering one hit and one walk while striking out five, but was unable to take the mound in the bottom of the sixth due to a back strain. With reliever Jim Johnson now in the game, the Blue Jays offence found some life and when Jose Bautista lined a one-out single to center scoring Jayson Nix and Yunel Escobar, the game was suddenly tied at 2-2.
It remained that way until the top of the ninth when Jays reliever Jon Rauch entered in relief of Jason Frasor following a perfect eighth inning and opened the frame by giving up back-to-back singles to Vladimir Guerero and Luke Scott. After a Derek Lee fielder’s choice scored pinch-runner Nolan Reimold from third, Rauch’s day was done without registering a single out as Jays skipper John Farrell went to lefty Luis Perez. But following a walk to Mark Reynolds, Perez gave up a Ryan Adams single to centre cashing in pinch-runner Felix Pie to make it 4-2.
Shawn Camp took things over from there and retired the next three batters. In the bottom of the ninth, red-hot Adam Lind gave the Blue Jays some hope with a leadoff homer to right—his 14th —but Orioles closer Kevin Gregg settled down from there to record his 13th save. Orioles reliever Jason Berken pitched two innings of scoreless relief to get the win (1-2), while Rauch (2-3) was tagged with the loss for Toronto.
Game Notes:
Following the game the Blue Jays placed RHP Casey Janssen on the 15-day DL with a right forearm strain (retroactive to June 15) and activated INF John McDonald…The win was the Orioles first in 16 tries at Rogers Centre dating back to Aug. 7, 2009…Jose Bautista has now reached base safely in 21 straight games…catcher Jose Molina was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Bob Davidson for arguing balls and strikes…Vladimir Guerrero’s sixth-inning double was the 2,500th hit of his career.
