TORONTO – Nearly a week into this grinding stretch of 28 games in 27 days, a matter of increasing urgency for the Toronto Blue Jays is finding a more balanced distribution of innings among the pitching staff.
Tanner Roark logged five frames Wednesday in a 5-2 win that completed a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, pushing the club’s total of rotation innings to 92.1 of 188, or just over 49 per cent. They started the day 26th in the majors in that regard, and with Nate Pearson hitting the injured list with elbow tightness, the looming flux will only complicate things.
A by-product of the starters’ ongoing inability to consistently get deep into games is that the Blue Jays bullpen is already at 95.2 innings logged, and the toll on the club’s leverage arms is particularly problematic with a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday and no scheduled off-day until Sept. 10.
The need to protect the heavily taxed Jordan Romano (11 games), Anthony Bass and A.J. Cole (10 each) on Wednesday forced manager Charlie Montoyo to bridge from Roark to acting closer Rafael Dolis with Ryan Borucki and Thomas Hatch.
Borucki recorded four outs, Hatch got five and Dolis, in his 11th appearance, locked things down in the ninth for his first save, which on this day was a luxury of depth for Montoyo.
"I wanted Roark to go six but it worked out great because when he left we had the lefty part of (the Orioles) lineup coming up so it was perfect to bring Borucki in," said Montoyo. "Hatch was going to face (Renato) Nunez (when the lineup turned over), so everything worked out great.
"Roark deserves a lot of credit because he minimized damage. He battled there and kept us in the game."
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Still, there’ll be a price to pay for that Thursday, when Chase Anderson and Trent Thornton, set to be activated from the injured list, are slated to start, with five innings essential from the former to ensure sufficient coverage behind the latter.
Now, that Romano, Bass, Dolis and Cole have been so busy is a good thing for the Blue Jays (10-11), reflective of how often they’ve been in leverage. Understandably, Montoyo has wanted to concentrate innings of import in their hands, but they have to be protected at times for the club to survive this 60-game quickie sked, let alone the typical 162-game grind.
A few more one-sided contests would help, but even with Randal Grichuk on a ridiculous tear – he hit two more home runs Wednesday and is now 14-for-33 with six homers and 14 RBIs over his past eight games – boat-race days have been hard to come by.
"I told Hatch today, ‘Welcome to high leverage,’" said Montoyo. "He knew he was going to pitch in the late innings with the game on the line and he did a great job. That’s what we’re going to have to do because there’s no way we can use Romano and Bass every day because it’s an everyday game and it’s going to be tough for them. Hatch doing that today was great, Hatch doing that and Dolis closing the game."
All the tight games prevent Montoyo from giving more regular work to the likes of Shun Yamaguchi and Jacob Waguespack, while Hatch, Borucki and Anthony Kay have usually been reserved for games when multiple-inning relief is needed behind the starting pitcher. Julian Merryweather, waiting to make his big-league debut, is in reserve for multiple-inning outings, too.
Borucki, Hatch and Kay have all acclimated well to bullpen life, with pitching coach Pete Walker and bullpen coach Matt Buschmann working to give them as much notice as possible to help them prepare on a daily basis.
"Today I knew I was going to be up, I played catch for five minutes maybe because I knew I had to save some bullets for the game," said Borucki. "Pete and Busch do an unbelievable job of being really good with their communication and letting us know what’s going to happen. You kind of feeling that you’re going to be out there for a bit, especially when the bullpen is thin, depending on the situations and stuff like that. In the morning, they let you know if you’re up or you’re down and if you’re in between, they ask how you’re really feeling, be honest.
"Pete’s told me to have a lot of communication with him, how I’m feeling, stuff like that and if I’m not feeling 100 per cent to let him know and he’ll give me the day off."
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Kay is likely to be piggybacked behind Thornton on Thursday and could be back up to start in Pearson’s spot Sunday in Tampa Bay against the Rays, but without off-days to offer the occasional breather, the Blue Jays need the rotation to do more of the heavy lifting.
Roark was up to a season-high 94 pitches in getting through five innings for the second time, but might have gotten deeper with some better fortune.
In particular, he swiped at a second-inning grounder from Dwight Smith Jr., that might have been a double play but instead put two on with none out. A Teoscar Hernandez error on a Smith single in the fourth allowed one run to score and led to another that briefly put the Orioles ahead 2-1.
At the same time, a pair of good defensive plays helped him along, too, Travis Shaw throwing out Anthony Santander at home on Renato Nunez’s grounder in the first, and Hernandez getting Pat Valaika at home trying to score on a Chance Sisco flyout to end the fourth.
"Shaw having the recognition to know where the runner is and know he had time to go home, that was huge, especially second and third, nobody out," said Roark. "I put myself into a bind right there but that was a phenomenal play right there. When I’m out there and see that kind of stuff, heads-up baseball, it fires me up, like OK, got to get out of this make my pitches.
"The Teo one, he had that one that went through him, it happens, he made up for it and got an out home and we needed that double play. Hats off to both of them."
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The Blue Jays took the lead 3-2 on Grichuk’s two-run homer in the sixth and added on with Brandon Drury’s sacrifice fly in the eighth off Thomas Eshelman and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s RBI single in the ninth to cash in a Cavan Biggio double on a ball Smith misread and allowed to drop.
"He wasn’t throwing too hard, I didn’t think he could beat me with his fastball so I got to two strikes and was just ready for whatever," Drury, who also had two hits, said of his approach in the eighth. "I was looking for something soft but also knowing I could trust myself on the heater, so trusted my ability there and got the job done."
That gave Hatch some breathing room in the eighth and Dolis more space in the ninth, helping to keep other arms out of the game. Each outing avoided for a reliever right now matters for the Blue Jays, because it’s an outing gained down the road.
