TORONTO – The culprit in Marco Estrada’s first bout with back issues this year was an attempt at the dragon flag, an abdominal exercise made famous by late martial arts master Bruce Lee – Google it, the thing is cray. The catalyst for the back tightness that forced the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander to exit Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks after only 88 pitches, on the other hand, was far more innocuous: the handful of swings he took against the Philadelphia Phillies in his previous start.
“I should know better, if I can’t swing a bat I can’t swing one,” Estrada said after allowing three runs on two hits over six innings, becoming the first big-league pitcher to hold opponents to five hits or less while throwing at least six frames in 11 straight starts since the mound was set at 60-feet, six-inches in 1893. “I’ve had back issues and that’s what’s going to happen when I try to swing a bat.
“I should probably stay away from that.”
In three at-bats against the Phillies last Wednesday, Estrada popped out, struck out swinging and lined out to first base, seeing 13 pitches in the process. He paid for it Tuesday. Next Monday in Denver, when he’s scheduled to start against the Colorado Rockies, an outing he fully expects to make, he’ll likely be keeping the bat on his shoulder. “I’ll be fine for the next one,” said Estrada, who missed most of spring training and opened the season on the DL due to his previous bout of back tightness.
Manager John Gibbons made the point that his removal from this game was precautionary.
“We figured better get him out of there,” said Gibbons, “we don’t want any more problems.”
Helping on that front is an off-day Thursday, which gives Estrada an extra day of rest before he next takes the mound. He certainly was no slouch pitching against the Diamondbacks through the tightness, but it was a factor on the two-run shot Yasmany Tomas hit in the fourth inning to open up a 3-0 Arizona lead.
“The deeper the game got the worse it got,” said Estrada. “I was trying to pitch through it, I felt pretty good out there, my arm felt really good but I turned around a few times, saw the velo and it was going down, I couldn’t really reach down and get much on it. I left a couple pitches up because of it, I gave up a home run on a terrible change-up that I threw, that’s what’s going to happen when you make bad pitches. Other than that I thought I still threw the ball pretty well.”
Well enough to extend his remarkable run of consistency through 14 starts, a run unlike any others in big-league history. Johan Santana (2004), Johnny Cueto (2013-14) and Jake Arrieta (2014) have enjoyed runs of 10 straight starts with at least six innings pitched and fewer than five hits.
“There’s been a lot of great pitchers in this game and for something like that to happen, I’m obviously very excited and very happy for it,” said Estrada. “But it’s bittersweet, we lost … there’s nothing really for me to celebrate right now.”
That went for the Blue Jays as a whole in their third straight loss, even as they outhit the Diamondbacks 8-3 and got another sensational catch from Kevin Pillar in centre field, among the very best on his lengthy highlight reel.
That grab came with one out in the top of the fourth, after the Tomas homer. Playing Peter O’Brien at medium depth, Pillar broke straight back at full speed when a 102 mph drive left the bat, leaping at the warning track, making the snag a couple of feet high in the air and then slamming into the wall at full force. He then collapsed to the ground and shook his right arm after making the catch.
A crowd of 41,838 gave him a couple of lengthy ovations for the grab, while his teammates waited outside the dugout to welcome him back once the inning was over.
For good measure, he ripped a two-run double off Patrick Corbin in the bottom half of the frame, cutting Arizona’s lead to 3-2, but he got thrown out unwisely trying to steal third to end the inning and the Blue Jays got no closer.
“They asked me to take some practice swings, I told them I’d take them in the box and I’d be ready to go,” Pillar said of how he felt in the batter’s box afterwards. “It was just hot, like a bruise, a little hematoma … it just felt like my arm was on fire, a couple of innings later throwing, there was a little burning in there but nothing ice can’t heal.”
Corbin, he of the 4.76 ERA coming in, navigated around eight hits and three walks over 6.1 innings to allow only two runs, with major help from Jake Barrett on that front. After getting a generous strike two call, Barrett shattered Josh Donaldson’s bat on an 88 mph slider to induce a double play with men on the corners to end the seventh.
Tyler Clippard pitched a clean eighth and Daniel Hudson did the same in the ninth for his first save.
Despite at least one batter reaching in each of the seven innings Corbin started, the Blue Jays only had four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
But the Diamondbacks by then had done enough damage against Estrada, as they opened the scoring in the third when Jean Segura walked with two outs, stole second and scored when Chris Hermann sent a weak dribbler to left against the shift.
Before Pillar’s catch in the fourth, Rickie Weeks Jr., walked with one out and Tomas followed with a high-arcing drive into the second deck in left field. Jesse Chavez took over from Estrada in the seventh and surrendered a slicing solo shot off the foul pole in right to O’Brien that made it a 4-2 game, which is how it finished.
“They beat us at our game,” said Gibbons. “We usually hit some home runs.”
Not this time, and it cost them.