HOUSTON – Talk to people about Marcus Stroman and once you get beyond his size and his stuff, one of the things that comes up again and again is his mound presence. Good, bad or in between, they praise his demeanour with the ball, and the confidence that drives it.
“The more success a pitcher has, you tend to be a little bigger on the hill,” says Toronto Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker. “His mound presence was good when he came, but it’s gotten better and it’s with success. As you realize you’re capable of pitching in the major-leagues and getting outs, the confidence level grows on the mound.
“That’s when people look and go, ‘Boy, he’s got mound presence.'”
Mound presence alone, however, isn’t nearly enough, as was underlined in Sunday’s disheartening 6-1 loss to the Houston Astros. Stroman allowed five runs on seven hits and a walk in three-plus innings, the shortest start of his young career, cruising through the first 2.2 innings before things turned in an instant.
“I just didn’t have my stuff,” he says.
To be fair, the Blue Jays offence did more than its share to help ensure the club’s third straight loss, capping a disappointing end to a 6-4 road trip that had started with so much more promise.
Ryan Goins’ RBI single opened the scoring in the second but Anthony Gose promptly snuffed things out by hitting into an inning-ending double play with men on the corners. Juan Francisco did the same thing in the third inning with the bases loaded and one out, rolling over a first-pitch cutter to kill the rally.
Scott Feldman held them in check the rest of the way, and the Blue Jays (60-53) will need to use Monday’s day off to reset themselves ahead of important home series against the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles, whom they trail by 3.5 games, and the Central-leading Detroit Tigers.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score a lot of runs, we weren’t able to get the key hit,” says Jose Reyes, who had three hits. “It’s tough to win ballgames like that. Hopefully we have a good day off and we have a huge two series coming up with Baltimore and Detroit. … Hopefully we come out and swing the bats the way we’re supposed to swing them.”
The end for Stroman began shortly after Francisco’s double play, as with two out and a man on first he surrendered a single to Jose Altuve, a damaging walk to Robbie Grossman, and then a two-run single to Chris Carter after getting ahead 0-2.
Jason Castro grounded out to end that threat, but Stroman couldn’t regroup in the fourth, as he gave up a single to Marc Krauss, a ringing double to Jon Singleton and an RBI single to Matt Dominguez before manager John Gibbons had seen enough.
“He was centring a lot of balls,” says Gibbons. “He was throwing across the plate and they whacked him pretty good. They’re hot right now, they’re swinging the bats. He’s been so good all year. He’s going to have those.”
Todd Redmond ended up walking in a run before escaping the frame, and his errant pick-off throw led to Dominguez’s sacrifice fly in the fifth.
The five earned runs charged to Stroman matched his season-high, set July 9 at Anaheim, and his one strikeout was a career low, an inability to put away hitters with his breaking ball the key culprit. During Grossman’s pivotal walk in the third, he fought off two curveballs and then spat on two others.
“I kind of didn’t have anything,” says Stroman. “Everything was kind of up. I’d get ahead in counts and I’d have trouble putting guys away where normally I’d be able to get those pitches down in the zone for punch-outs. It was a tough one.
“I’m not discouraged just looking forward to the next one, kind of put this one in the past.”
Stroman had won three straight decisions coming in – allowing just one run over 21 innings – so perhaps a bit of a correction was inevitable. The same goes for the Blue Jays as a whole after a white-hot 11-3 run right out of the all-star break.
The 23-year-old right-hander has already shown an ability to bounce back this season, his mound presence unaffected by a bad outing the previous time out.
“Some guys get rattled a lot more for getting beat up or hit pretty bad,” says teammate Mark Buehrle. “For myself, it’s you’re going to have tough innings, you’re going to have easy innings, that’s why I always say stay even keel, don’t get too high when you’re pitching good, don’t get too low when you’re pitching bad. That’s (Stroman).”
With an important and challenging set of games against their chief rivals for the post-season coming up – after the home-stand three with the Seattle Mariners loom – the Blue Jays need to maintain their swag, too.
“We’ve been playing good baseball,” says Gibbons. “The last three games didn’t go our way, pure and simple. But we have a nice off-day and we play the teams that matter. Baltimore, then Detroit and Seattle, three really good teams, we’ll have a little bit better idea where we’re at after that.”
NOTES: Jose Reyes gave the Blue Jays a scare in the first inning when he lay down on the field after driving his right shoulder into shortstop Marwin Gonzalez’s knee on a slide into second base. In pain, Reyes’ hand came off the bag and he was called out trying to stretch his single into a double, and left the field clutching the shoulder he’s been icing post-game for weeks now. Reyes remained in the game, however, making a fine defensive play in the first inning and adding two more singles and a stolen base. “They tested me right out of the gate,” says Reyes. “I stayed in the game because I felt good. It’s not a big deal, I feel fine, I’ll be in the lineup Tuesday again.” His thought at the time? “It was a little bit scary when it first happened, but after I got up, I knew everything was going to be fine,” he explains. “I just had to take my black necklace off and put it in my locker because that scratched me a little bit in my collarbone. Other than that, everything was fine.” And how is his shoulder doing overall? “It’s OK, good enough to be in the field,” he says. “It’s August. We’re competing right now to make the playoffs, so no matter how sore it’s going to be I’ll try to be there every single day helping my ball club win a lot of ballgames.”
Blue Jays reliever Neil Wagner, on the triple-A Buffalo disabled list with a forearm injury, is scheduled to throw a rehab outing for the GCL Blue Jays on Monday. If healthy, the hard-throwing right-hander would be a nice addition to the bullpen for the stretch run.