NEW YORK – Liam Hendriks is slated to take the mound Friday in Cincinnati against the Reds as the Toronto Blue Jays once again look to sneak some extra rest into their starting rotation.
R.A. Dickey was originally scheduled to pitch the opener of the three-game series against Mat Latos, but after the knuckleballer left his last start with minor groin tightness, manager John Gibbons said, “it makes sense to give him a day or two.”
J.A. Happ remains on turn and will pitch Saturday versus Mike Leake, while Dickey now starts Sunday in place of Marcus Stroman against Johnny Cueto. Stroman, Mark Buehrle and Drew Hutchison will each get an extra day of rest before facing the Yankees next week in Toronto.
“We think it’s important to protect that rotation a little bit,” said Gibbons. “(Hendriks) will come along, he pitched well for us in a couple of outings earlier in the year. Hopefully he gives us a boost, too. He’ll be here for one start and he’ll go back and it will give those guys an extra breather.”
Hendriks allowed just three runs in 11.2 innings over two starts, but was fortunate to have several lasers hit right at fielders. The Reds are 28th in the majors in runs scored with 266.
As for Dickey, he’s indifferent about the extra rest but says his groin is fine.
“It’s not an issue for me,” he said. “But I pitch when they tell me.”
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Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos on Tuesday about three-game series with Yankees: “We tend to forget, I know we keep saying it, but there’s so many games left, who we play today in a three-game series is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it’s AL East, you want to win, but I don’t make any more of this series than I would, important series is in September if we’re in the hunt.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi after completing a three-game sweep: “We’re all kind of bunched together, so there’s a lot of meaning to these games. We understand that, and we know they understand it.”
Discuss.
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The Blue Jays didn’t look good in dropping all three games at the Bronx and that helped further erode the cushion they had built up last month.
Their lead atop the AL East is down to 1.5 games.
“For the stretch that we had, we were the only team that really got hot for any length of time but those other teams are going to do it,” said manager John Gibbons. “These guys, Baltimore, Boston is hanging in there, they won’t sit around. Shoot, you never know with Tampa, they’ve been down before but they somehow crawl back in it because they pitch. I expect it to be bunched up all year.”
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Ricky Romero is done for the season after knee surgery.
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Jose Bautista on 1,000 hits and going the other way in the Blue Jays notebook.