Marco Estrada returns to the mound Friday against the Baltimore Orioles fresh off taking a no-hitter into the eighth against the Boston Red Sox in his last start, the third time he’s taken a no-no that deep over the past year.
That’s an impressive, if frustrating, run of near-misses in a short span for the right-hander, although it doesn’t compare to the heartbreak experienced by Toronto Blue Jays icon Dave Stieb, who lost no-hitters with two outs in the ninth in consecutive starts in September 1988 and then a perfect game with an out to go Aug. 4, 1989. He also lost a no-hit bid with none out in the ninth in 1985, eventually delivering the franchise’s only no-hitter Sept. 2, 1990 at Cleveland.
“I couldn’t imagine but if I had to really think about it, that would be pretty painful,” Estrada says of Stieb’s many close calls. “I know what’s going on during the game, I don’t think about it, it’s whatever, if it happens, awesome, if it doesn’t, whatever, I just want to win. But if it’s eight and two-thirds, you’re one out away, and some guy gets a hit off you, that would be heartbreaking.”
Estrada didn’t surrender a hit against the Red Sox on Sunday until Chris Young’s one-out homer in the eighth inning. Last June 19, Jimmy Paredes broke up his no-hit bid against the Orioles with a leadoff single in the eighth, while five days later at Tampa Bay, Logan Forsythe collected the first Rays hit with a one-out single in the eighth.
“I seriously don’t think about it,” Estrada insists. “I’m going out there like, ‘Alright, you’ve got to make the pitch.’ Whatever Russ [Martin] is calling, I’m looking at the glove and focused on that. I honestly don’t think about anything else.”
That generally applies to Estrada’s approach when pitching. He likes to take deep breaths before throwing his first pitch of an inning, and “other than that when I’m on the mound, I’m not thinking of much, to be honest with you, other than making the pitch.”
Whatever his approach, it’s working to great effect, as through 11 outings Estrada is 4-2 with a 2.41 ERA and a 0.978 WHIP, largely a product of a 5.3 hits-per-nine-innings rate. He’s up nearly a walk per nine innings over last year, to 3.5 from 2.7, one area of concern he points to in what’s so far been a stellar campaign.
“I hate walking people,” he says. “The difference from two years ago to last year was that I learned it’s OK to walk a guy once in a while. Everybody has those guys that give them a hard time and hey, if you feel more comfortable facing the next guy, it’s OK, you don’t have to always give in.
“That’s where I got in trouble in 2014, because I hated walking people, so if I’d fall behind, I’d throw basically right down the middle and say, ‘Screw it, hit it.’ Which I think is still a good mindset, but there are certain times when you’ve got to pick and choose your battles.
“That’s one of the things that’s helped me out this year but saying all that, I’m walking people and it’s not on purpose and it’s driving me crazy. I’m trying not to let it get to me.”
Managing frustration has been a key area of growth for Estrada, who now when something goes wrong will “say something out loud real quick and then forget about it.”
In the past, like in 2014 when Estrada surrendered a league-high 29 home runs in 150.2 innings, letting things go was much more difficult for him.
“That’s where Buhrls comes into play,” Estrada says, referring to former teammate Mark Buehrle. “He’d tell me, ‘Listen, yeah, that guy hit it hard, who cares? Get over it. Move on the next guy. Plain and simple.’ We talked about it a lot more than that, but basically that’s what it came down to and I try to follow it. It’s helped me out a lot, just get over it, move on to the next guy, simple.
“It’s really easy to say, extremely hard to do, but it’s getting there.”
Despite the strong numbers, Estrada feels the same way about his pitching overall this season.
“I know things have gone well, I wouldn’t say I feel better than I did last year,” he says. “Things are going well, I’m making good pitches but I’m still not exactly where I want to be but obviously with what’s going on, I’m happy with where I’m at. I want to keep it going.”
So, too, do the Blue Jays.
