KANSAS CITY — For all the deliberation and debate that surrounds his every start, for all the speculation and conjecture that has trailed him throughout a remarkable season, for all the hairsplitting and nitpicking over the stress of his innings, the height of his arm, the whip of his velocity, and the consequences, both real and perceived, of letting him pitch further and further into the dark of workload territory not yet traversed, there is one thing that is absolutely certain about Aaron Sanchez—the guy desperately wants to pitch.
There is a certain life about him on his start days; an energy he brings to the ballpark because tonight’s the night. On this particular evening, a humid one in Kansas City, Sanchez was in the Blue Jays clubhouse early, foam rolling and watching MLB highlights on a large TV. He ambled out into the dugout for his pre-game warm-ups about an hour before first pitch, wedging three pieces of gum into his lower lip and rinsing his mouth with water before jogging off into right field to work through the dynamic routine he performs before each and every start.
Throughout the game, whenever Blue Jays hitters made their third out of an inning, Sanchez practically sprinted from the dugout, pointing skywards and smacking his glove as he took the mound before some Royals had even left the field.
Sanchez wants to be on that mound, desperately, which is something he doesn’t get enough credit for. This extended discussion over his future in the Blue Jays rotation doesn’t happen if Sanchez doesn’t work his tail off this past winter to build muscle and durability, if he doesn’t make believers out of his front office during a remarkable spring training, if he doesn’t put together one of the best seasons of any American League starter through the end of July, and, perhaps most importantly, if he doesn’t deeply crave every opportunity he gets to attack a lineup of nine hitters.
That desire is a simple one, but it’s not pointed out enough. And it’s why his struggles in Saturday night’s 4-2 Blue Jays loss to the Royals aren’t as damning as they could have been. After all, this was meant to be Sanchez’s final start in the rotation. But after he pled his case in a series of dialogues with Blue Jays brass earlier this week we now know it won’t be. Sanchez will live to start another day. And no one wants that to happen more desperately than him.
“He’s unbelievable, man,” said Devon Travis, who drove in both of the Blue Jays’ runs on Saturday. “The way that guy prepares, not just the day of his start, but the days leading up to it, it’s honestly something that I really look up to him for. He does an incredible job of keeping his body right, keeping his mind right. He brings a bunch of intensity to the team every day, even when he’s not playing. He’s a really special guy.”
So, how did we arrive at this 4-2 result? Well, it started early, as for the second consecutive day Travis led off the game with a home run. The last Blue Jay to hit leadoff homers in consecutive games was Jose Cruz Jr., who did it against the New York Yankees on April 22 and 23, 2000.
Travis drove in the Blue Jays’ second run as well, shooting an 83-mph curveball from Royals starter Danny Duffy into right field to drive in Kevin Pillar who doubled to lead off the fifth.
“Duffy, he’s really good. He’s got an explosive fastball. He’s got a real sharp slider. He mixes in a get-me-over curveball. He’s been throwing his changeup a lot lately and it’s really good,” Travis said. “He’s a really good arm. He doesn’t miss down the middle too much. He’s a tough one for sure.”
Meanwhile, for his first four innings, Aaron Sanchez did Aaron Sanchez things. He got strikeouts with his curveball, groundballs with his sinker, and the occasional weak pop-up when his catcher, Russell Martin, asked him to elevate. He held the Royals hitless until the fourth, when they put two runners on with one out. It was a stressful inning by Sanchez’s standards, and he escaped unscathed having thrown just 14 pitches.
But the fifth was a struggle. The Royals loaded the bases with none out despite only hitting one ball out of the infield, and then pushed across a run on a hard grounder to the left side that neither Josh Donaldson nor Troy Tulowitzki could corral in time.
Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker came out to the mound for a chat, and Sanchez quickly earned a weak pop-up for his first out and a groundball that produced a force out at home for his second. But then he fell behind Eric Hosmer, and left a change-up over the plate that the Royals first baseman singled into left field to score two more. Sanchez was out of the inning a pitch later, the rare storm weathered for the time being.
We say that because after Sanchez retired his first two batters of the sixth he surrendered a single that skidded under Tulowitzki’s glove and then left a two-seamer up to Raul Mondesi, who lined it to the right field wall for a triple. Sanchez got a lineout to end the inning and walked briskly to the dugout. He didn’t come back out for another one.
All told, Sanchez surrendered four runs on nine hits, striking out three and walking one. He allowed just two hits and used only 50 pitches through his four innings. But there were seven hits on 41 pitches over his next two frames, which did him in. It was the first time since June 12—a stretch of eight starts—that Sanchez allowed more than two runs. It inflated his ERA to 2.85, which remains the best in the AL.
After the game, Sanchez described himself as a “one-pitch pitcher” on the night, saying he didn’t have a good feel for his off-speed stuff. The numbers reflect that, as Sanchez threw a fastball more than 80 per cent of the time Saturday, mixing in the occasional curveball and only using his change-up five times. He said that by the fifth and sixth innings the Royals figured out he didn’t have his off-speed pitches on the night, and began to time up his two-seamer.
“But, for the most part, I can’t be too down on myself. I felt like I still pitched extremely well,” Sanchez said. “It was just timely hitting on their part. That’s a good team over there, let’s not forget. It’s still the big leagues, regardless of how well they’re doing. It just didn’t go my way tonight.”
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays offence sputtered against Duffy and the Royals bullpen, managing just three baserunners—a walk, a hit, and an error—after Travis’ single in the fifth. It would have been an unfortunate game to stand as Sanchez’s last as a starter this season.
But it won’t be, as the 24-year-old will get to take his next turn in the Blue Jays’ six-man rotation sometime next week in Toronto. And you know he can’t wait until he gets to take the mound and pick up that ball.