NEW YORK — On Monday night, the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t only lose, 6-3, to the New York Yankees. They also spun their Great Big Wheel of Calamity and landed on a hardship not experienced since much earlier in this adversity-rich season: a blister issue for one of the team’s best starters.
That would be Marcus Stroman, who left Monday’s game after only five innings and 79 pitches when a blister formed on the middle finger of his right hand and became too troublesome to pitch through.
“I’ve never had a blister ever in my life. Nothing even remotely close to having a blister. It’s crazy. It’s extremely frustrating,” Stroman said. “I feel like it’s an epidemic that’s happened across the big leagues now. A bunch of pitchers getting blisters. Guys who have never had blisters before. For MLB to turn their back to it, I think that’s kind of crazy.
“I have no theory. But, obviously, it’s not a coincidence that it’s happening to so many guys all of a sudden. It’s not a coincidence.”
Stroman appeared to be battling an issue with his hand throughout that fifth and final frame. At one point, he missed his location badly and received attention on the mound from Blue Jays assistant athletic trainer Mike Frostad, who closely examined the middle finger on Stroman’s right hand and tended to it with nail clippers.
Stroman was permitted to finish the inning, but was lifted from the game after that. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons made the decision not to let his 26-year-old starter push through the ailment.
“He’s never had a problem with that, but it was coming off that two-seam, right on the outside edge. So, we figured that was enough,” Gibbons said. “Blisters aren’t a good thing around here, you know? You don’t want that to turn into something worse.”
Pitchers deal with abrasions, blisters and calluses on their hands all the time, and it’s certainly possible the issue Stroman is dealing with will turn out to be minor and won’t keep him out of action. He finished his final inning strong, and a humid night in the Bronx could have contributed to some excess moisture and friction on Stroman’s fingers.
But neither Gibbons nor Stroman could rule out the possibility of him missing his next start, scheduled for Saturday afternoon against the Houston Astros.
“You hope not. I like the way he’s throwing,” Gibbons said. “But we’ll see. If it’s tender the next few days, we might have to. I don’t anticipate that. But we’ll see how he looks tomorrow.”
“I’m going to do everything in my power not to miss my next start against Houston,” Stroman added. “Obviously, I’ll do everything I can to get my body ready. And then on the finger side, just let it heal up and then hopefully it gets to where it needs to be for the next start.”
There is never a good moment for a blister, but this particular timing is especially unkind for Stroman, who Gibbons said was pitching as well as he has all season Monday night. Stroman allowed two runs on five hits and two walks over his five innings, striking out three and leaning heavily on his two-seamer, which couldn’t have felt good considering the blister he was pitching with.
“That was the best I’ve felt all year. I feel like I’ve honestly hit my stride right now,” Stroman said. “I feel the strongest I’ve been all year. So, to come out at that point when I feel like I was rolling, it’s pretty frustrating. Gibby obviously leaned on the side of being more cautious, and it’s hard to argue with that.”
The timing of Stroman’s blister is equally unkind for the Blue Jays, especially if he’s forced to miss his next start. Stroman has been Toronto’s most consistent starter this season, with a team-best 105.1 innings pitched under his belt. His 3.42 ERA sits second among Blue Jays starters to only Aaron Sanchez, who has thrown just 24.1 innings this year due to blister problems of his own.
Even with Sanchez likely returning from the disabled list this weekend, losing Stroman for any period of time — especially at this crucial juncture of the season, as the Blue Jays try to pull themselves out of full tailspin with the trade deadline looming — would be an awfully difficult blow for the club to absorb. Subtract him from the equation and the Blue Jays have a lot more to worry about than only their struggling offence.
And about that struggling offence: Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka had his way with it on a night Toronto rested three regulars in Russell Martin, Kevin Pillar and Troy Tulowitzki. The Blue Jays put a runner on in each of the first five innings, but Tanaka consistently found a way out, whether it was with a ground ball-inducing splitter or a swing-and-miss slider, his two most effective pitches on the night.
There was no telling what Tanaka was going to throw in any given count as he mixed and matched with five different pitches and operated almost exclusively below the belts of Toronto’s hitters.
“He keeps that ball at the knees,” Gibbons said. “He’s got that good split and it starts out knee high and it’s tough to read that thing. So, yeah, he was good.”
It took a madcap series of events for the Blue Jays to finally break through against Tanaka in the seventh. Ezequiel Carrera was hit by a pitch, stole second, took third as New York catcher Gary Sanchez’s throw sailed into centre field, and nearly scored when centre-fielder Brett Gardner launched a too-strong throw of his own well over third base.
Carrera eventually scored two pitches later when Darwin Barney went up above the strike zone to loft a Tanaka fastball into shallow left-centre field. With a 67.6-mph exit velocity, it was one of the softer balls the Blue Jays put in play all night. But it got the job done.
Alas, that was all the Blue Jays could muster against Tanaka. There was a brief rally in the ninth, which featured Pillar and Barney driving in runs off Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman in a non-save situation. But that provided consolation and nothing more. Toronto has now scored only five runs over its last three games and 14 over the last seven, a 1-6 stretch.
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