TORONTO – Following his first start of the season, an 11-strikeout gem against the Tampa Bay Rays in which he fell an out short of a shutout, Mark Buehrle immediately noted the quick rapport he and Dioner Navarro had developed.
Seven starts later, Buehrle is now 7-1 after a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, and save for one little hiccup, the Toronto Blue Jays left-hander says his relationship with Navarro has only grown stronger.
“I shook him off twice in Baltimore and he got kind of pissed at me,” says Buehrle. “Other than that, it’s gone great. He’s throwing pitches down, he’s not doing it as quick as he did it in spring training, there were a few times when the guy wasn’t even in the box and he’d flash it off to the side. I don’t know if maybe the first-base coach or third-base coach kind of keep an eye out for that stuff, but it’s been great. He’s putting the sign down, I’m getting the ball and throwing it, and it’s worked out.”
Buehrle is particular about his catchers. He almost never shakes off a sign, and trusts his catcher to have a solid game plan ready. Since he likes to work fast, his catcher needs to work at a quick pace too, and not keep him waiting.
Last year he and J.P. Arencibia had trouble getting on the same page, and that probably contributed to Buehrle’s slow start. The reverse is true this year with Navarro, who’s playing a key role in his pitcher’s success.
“Big time,” says Buehrle. “I don’t look at scouting reports before the game, so him and Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) go over that stuff and he’s got a game plan. He puts the fingers down, I throw it and try to make the best pitch at that time. I obviously have to make the pitch, but as far as calling it in certain situations, you’ve got to give him a ton of credit.”
Save of course for that fateful day in Baltimore on April 13, when he allowed one run in seven innings of an 11-3 win. Buehrle remembers getting two quick outs in an inning when he and Navarro had their disagreement.
“He threw some off-speed pitch down and I was thinking in my head, there’s two (quick) outs, just throw a fastball down the middle, this guy is taking,” says Buehrle. “He threw his arms up like, ‘What the heck just happened?’ Afterwards he came off, he was acting tough with me, ‘Don’t you every shake me off again.’ I just felt in that situation that guy was going to be taking. If he had hit a home run, that was my fault. I just figured he’d be taking.”
As Buehrle remembers things, turned out he was right and he stole a strike.
—
The Blue Jays ended up with an unusual defensive alignment for the final three innings of their 7-3 win over the Angels because Colby Rasmus left early with right hamstring tightness.
—
Chad Jenkins and Jonathan Diaz are back with the Blue Jays in the latest turns of the roster wheel. The past 17 days have included three call ups for Jenkins.
—
Brett Lawrie made a strong defensive play to help kill a brewing rally in the seventh, making a terrific turn at second base with Erick Aybar barreling in on him to complete a 6-4-3 double play on an Albert Pujols grounder.
The ball may have been his toughest test at second since the Blue Jays started shifting him over.
“Just don’t think about, just do it, that’s the biggest thing is not worrying about certain situations at certain times,” Lawrie said of his approach. “I felt him on top of me, and obviously because we weren’t holding him on at first base, you know he’s going to be coming in hot there. The biggest thing is to get one there, I was lucky to get two just because (Pujols) is barking with something in his leg, so he wasn’t running at full speed, I ended up getting the throw off and I ended up getting two. So it was a great turn and got out of the inning. It was good.”
Manager John Gibbons was impressed but not surprised.
“That’s a talented defensive player that you could put in centre field, you could put him at shortstop, you could put him anywhere,” he said. “He’s got such great feet, hands. He’s got the mentality of a catcher. Maybe we want to think about that.”
I’m pretty sure he was joking, but with this team who knows?