Less than three years after making his MLB debut, Marcus Stroman’s already gaining a reputation as a pitcher who teams turn to for big games.
The latest such occasion will take place Wednesday night when the 25-year-old Toronto Blue Jays right-hander will get the ball for Team USA against Puerto Rico in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic.
The contest will add to his strong resume of starts made under intense spotlight, a trend that dates back a couple of years.
In 2015 Stroman worked his way back from March ACL surgery on his left knee to make crucial September starts for the Blue Jays, who were battling the New York Yankees for top spot in the American League East at the time.
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Each outing carried severe implications in the standings and Stroman won all four starts, including two against the Yankees and the AL East-clinching game against the Baltimore Orioles. He got better each time out too, impressive for a guy making his first four starts of the season.
That success paved the way for his biggest test yet, a do-or-die Game 5 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers. It was an assignment the Blue Jays handed to Stroman instead of veteran teammate David Price. Lost in the famous bat-flip affair was that Stroman went toe-to-toe with battle-tested Rangers ace Cole Hamels, and kept the Blue Jays in the game while spinning six strong innings of two-run ball. Stroman didn’t earn the win that came as a result of Jose Bautista’s home run, but his ability to stay composed was critical.
Fast forward to the 2016 Wild Card game against the Baltimore Orioles, another win-or-go-home start that the Blue Jays entrusted to Stroman. They could’ve gone with accomplished veteran Francisco Liriano, but instead showed continued faith in their young right-hander, who responded by allowing two runs over six innings in the no-decision.
Stroman was great against the Rangers and Orioles, if not dominant in the way that Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard have been in recent post-season performances. The lead-changing two-run home run that Stroman allowed to Mark Trumbo in the fourth inning of the Wild Card game was evidence of that.
But Wednesday’s game against Puerto Rico at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles offers Stroman the chance to take the next step on one of the biggest nights of his career. The entire baseball world will be watching what amounts to the largest stage the sport will have until this fall. With a dominant outing for the U.S., Stroman could catapult himself into the consciousness of even casual fans in America and add a gigantic moment into his career story.
“He deserves the ball,” Team USA manager Jim Leyland told Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. “He’s going to get it.”
Stroman pitched against the same Puerto Rico squad in the second round of the tournament and struggled immensely out of the gate, allowing hits to the first six batters as the U.S. fell behind 4-0. But Stroman recovered nicely, at one point holding 14 consecutive batters hitless as he stretched his outing.
He’ll have a limit of 95 pitches to leave another lasting impression Wednesday.
That’s 95 pitches to add to an already strong resume that could feature another bold bullet point by the end of the night.
