ARLINGTON, Texas – Thomas Pannone made a spot start for the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night and it didn’t go particularly well. Seven earned runs on five hits and three walks in 2.1 innings was rather suboptimal. It happens, but a better performance would have given them a chance as Lance Lynn, his counterpart wasn’t very good, either.
Instead, a deep hole was too much for the Blue Jays to climb out of and Derek Law, Sam Gaviglio and Elvis Luciano had to cover the difference in an 8-5 loss to the Texas Rangers that featured Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s first career RBI.
Guerrero ripped a single past Asdrubal Cabrera in the first inning to score Justin Smoak and open up a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. It was nice little bit of baseball coming full circle, as Smoak’s first career RBI, on April 27, 2010, brought home Guerrero’s father, as Baseball Toronto’s Keegan Matheson first noted on Twitter.
“Baseball is crazy,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “That was like nine years ago, Smoaky and I are here now playing together. It feels great. … I feel very happy with myself about my first RBI. Hopefully there will be many, many to come.”
Smoak’s first RBI also came at Globe Life Park, off Mark Buehrle in the sixth inning of a 4-2 win over the Chicago White Sox. He doesn’t remember the play, but says coming around on Junior’s first RBI was “cool and it’s weird in a way, too. I feel it’s a funny game, crazy stuff always happens. For that to happen, it’s crazy to me. It’s weird how this game works.”
There were few highlights beyond that for the Blue Jays, although Gaviglio’s ongoing work is deserving of recognition. Very quietly, he’s emerged as “the glue between the cracks,” in the words of pitching coach Pete Walker, picking up innings at inopportune times that helps preserve the bullpen or steadies the tide in a game getting out of hand, or both.
And he’s pitched exceptionally well, too, having allowed only four runs, three earned, in 22.1 innings over 11 outings. He’s allowed only 11 hits, walked two batters and struck out 22. Despite seeing minimal leverage, he’s already been worth more than half a win per Baseball Reference, with a 0.6 WAR.
“He’s been great. He’s one of the reasons we’ve been hanging in,” manager Charlie Montoyo said before the game. “He can pitch one inning today and go three the next day. He can give you length, he can come in and get a good hitter out. He’s been very good.”
The Blue Jays won’t need a fifth starter again until May 18 and general manager Ross Atkins described Clayton Richard recovering in time to fill the spot as “the best scenario.” If he’s not, there’s a case based on merit to give consideration to Gaviglio for the outing, although you can certainly argue that he’s been far too valuable in his current role to consider pulling him from it.
Gaviglio’s performance comes after he went 3-10 with a 5.31 ERA in 123.2 innings over 26 games, 24 of them starts, last season. In moving from a starting role to the bullpen, his average velocity has jumped about one m.p.h., to 89.7 on his fastball, but intriguingly, his slider is up from 83.5 to 85.6 m.p.h., and he’s using it more often, too.
“As a starter you have to use your fastball more and coming out of the ‘pen, you have shorter stints so I’m (going to) come out more and attack guys,” said Gaviglio. “Mechanically I feel like I’ve been in a really good spot since the start of spring so I’m just trying to stay with it, make quality pitches and execute.”
Opponents are batting just .146 this season against a slider Gaviglio has been using nearly 46 per cent of the time, about 18 per cent more than he did last year. His swinging-strike percentage has nearly doubled, too, from 8.7 per cent to 15.3 per cent, although he didn’t get a single one Saturday.
As he has all season, he continued to sprinkle in the occasional curveball, changeup and cutter, just to keep hitters honest, but has been able to leverage the fastball/slider combo to great effect.
“It’s trying to steal a few strikes here and there (with the other pitches),” said Gaviglio.
In doing so, he’s also helped the Blue Jays steal a couple of games, most notably with his four innings of shutout ball in Oakland on April 20 after Matt Shoemaker suffered his season-ending knee injury. He’s continued to get more important innings since then, as Montoyo has tried to save him for more and more important moments.
“It’s tough to do what he’s doing and I feel like he’s given us a lot already,” said Smoak. “The last few days, if he hasn’t pitched, then he’s been up (warming). To have that guy in the ‘pen who can give two, three, four innings if he has to, it helps the staff out.”
A contribution that doesn’t show up in the boxscore or in his WAR, but is much appreciated in the clubhouse.
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