DUNEDIN, Fla. – Francisco Liriano overcame a minor blip in his delivery early Sunday afternoon to drop another whack of swing-and-miss on an opponent, and much like everything else in the Toronto Blue Jays rotation this spring, it’s all good right now for the left-hander.
“Everything is working better than the last couple of years,” he said after allowing a run on two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in a 2-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. “It’s one of the best spring trainings physically and mechanically I’ve felt. …
“The breaking ball has been pretty sharp, throwing it down in the zone and not trying to overthrow it, and having better location with the fastball has really helped me a lot. When you throw everything around the plate and get ahead early, not trying to overthrow, that’s the key for me.”
Really, all the Blue Jays want to do on the rotation front is to keep things rolling, and manager John Gibbons confirmed that the Blue Jays will set things up as Sportsnet’s Arash Madani reported it Friday – Marco Estrada on opening day, followed by J.A. Happ, Marcus Stroman, Liriano and Aaron Sanchez.
Liriano makes one more start before the bell rings, Saturday in the second of two exhibition games in Montreal against his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which he’ll taper off the workload a bit ahead of the looming grind. The same goes for the other starters, save for Sanchez, who’ll be dialling it up once more Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies before scaling back ahead of his season debut.
Roberto Osuna, battling a stiff neck, may also get an inning against the Phillies after throwing a side session Saturday.
The other Blue Jays relievers, meanwhile, will keep pushing from here on out, which is what made the strong outings for J.P. Howell and Joe Smith noteworthy Sunday.
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The two veteran free-agent additions are pivotally important in ensuring successful mid-inning bridges to primary set-up men Joe Biagini and Jason Grilli, and in supporting that duo so they don’t get overtaxed. Both are at the point of spring where the results begin to matter to them, so the zeroes they tossed up carried some relevance.
“When I come into it, first it’s just throwing the ball over that white thing back there and getting comfortable seeing hitters in the box,” explained Smith. “After you get good at throwing the ball down the middle, then it’s, OK, let’s move to the edges, let’s start mixing in breaking pitches. You get to now, I told Juan [Graterol], let’s throw everything, whatever you got, let’s get on the corners and pitch and perform.”
Smith did just that, stranding a bloop leadoff double that diving right-fielder Josh Palacios got a glove on inches from the foul line. Two groundballs and a strikeout looking took care of things from there, and the right-hander likes where he’s at with two spring outings still to come.
“Knock on wood, my body hasn’t felt this good in probably two years,” he said, praising the Blue Jays strength and training staff for letting him emphasize agility exercises rather than mound reps as a way to improve his mobility and rotation. “I’d be asking, I’m strong, but why the hell can’t I move right? Why am I fighting this? If my body can move the way it’s supposed to, then I can take less reps off the mound and be even more confident I can throw the ball where I want to.”
Howell also appreciates that the Blue Jays allowed him to progress at his own pace, too, something he said “is usually the battle with teams.”
Over his past couple of outings, he’s moved from feel and mechanics to caring more about the results, and consecutive appearances in which he’s fallen behind the leadoff batter 3-1 made a better start a priority for him in Sunday’s outing.
Howell responded by striking out Craig Gentry and Pedro Alvarez on six pitches before inducing a first-pitch groundout from Trey Mancini to end his frame. Seven pitches, all strikes. Boom.
“Right about now you want to know exactly where you’re at physically, mentally, emotionally, all that,” said Howell. “The hitters are letting me know that I’m staying closed, they’re having a tough time seeing the ball and they’re having to let the ball get real deep and judge it then.
“For a guy throwing 86, that’s everything. If they can’t pick it up, it’s like throwing 90. It’s not that much but it’s a huge difference when you’re throwing 86.”
Making hitters look bad is especially important for Howell because with his lack of velocity, faith in his stuff is typically harder to come by.
“I always felt that I had to prove it, it didn’t matter if I had a 1.00 (ERA),” he said. “If I didn’t have two strikeouts an inning in college or even close to one an inning here, or a lot of swings and misses and making guys look a certain way, you can’t just get them out. It’s tough.
“Anyone that rolls the dice on me, I know they have heart, they have courage, because it takes a lot to see what I bring to the table. On paper, you might get fired for bringing me on board – 84-86, little bender – it takes a guy to do some homework to bring me on their team. That’s what I’ve loved about the teams I’ve played on – they’ve all picked me, here included. When they do that, I know there’s something deeper in that organization.”
Note: Ryan Goins left the game in the fourth inning after getting hit on the right elbow by a Jayson Aquino fastball. Though he was wearing an elbow pad, the impact caused his arm to go numb. “I just switched elbow pads, the new one is going in the trash,” said Goins. “The pad wasn’t thick enough or hard enough so you get that on your bone and nerve. It feels fine now, it’s moving good, you just feel the swelling in there a little bit. Maybe a day, it shouldn’t be much more than that.”