TORONTO – A starting rotation can keep a team in contention in a couple of ways.
Everything can go according to plan, and your collection of frontline arms can stay healthy on the way to a combined ERA below 3.00. Ask the Houston Astros about that, but don’t count on copying their template.
More realistically, teams adjust on the fly. Many contenders, including the Red Sox, Yankees, Mariners, Brewers, Braves, Diamondbacks, Cubs, Dodgers and Athletics, have used at least eight starters to this point in the season. Most of those teams have also had prominent starters get hurt or underperform while others deliver as expected.
The Blue Jays entered the season with a seemingly solid rotation, but their starters have combined for a 4.94 ERA. Three starters have already hit the disabled list and a fourth, Marco Estrada, may require a DL stint himself after straining his left glute. Only J.A. Happ has avoided injury, and he’ll likely be traded by the end of the month. When your Plan A goes that poorly, no Plan B is good enough to compensate.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, more has gone wrong than right in the starting rotation, and Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the New York Mets underscored that trend. A five-run fifth inning chased Marcus Stroman from the game, setting up a second consecutive long night for Toronto’s bullpen.
The Blue Jays, of course, expect Stroman to be part of the solution for their rotation – a reasonable assumption given that he logged 200 innings in each of the last two seasons. Adding to that optimism, he had completed consecutive strong outings since returning from the disabled list. But on Wednesday he had trouble commanding his pitches as well as usual and his season ERA climbed to 6.50.
“I didn’t have the feel for anything from pitch one to be honest with you,” Stroman said. “I walked the leadoff batter. Super uncharacteristic of me. I just had trouble getting my grip on pitches, but it is what it is and you just look forward to the next one.”
The evening started well for Stroman, who paid tribute to longtime teammate Jose Bautista by playing his old walk-up music, Trophies, by Young Money featuring Drake, and applauding along with the 26,038 fans in attendance when Bautista stepped in for his first at-bat of the day.
“I love Bau from the bottom of my heart,” Stroman said. “He’s a huge friend, role model and mentor of mine from the very beginning. I respect and value him in my life for not only teaching me things about baseball, but about life in general. He’s someone I go to when I’m going through things.”
Stroman retired Bautista with a flyout as he made it through the early innings with apparent ease, erasing leadoff walks with double-play balls in the first and second. A Brandon Nimmo RBI single got the Mets started in the third, but Stroman followed with a one-two-three fourth.
He allowed five hits and a walk in the fifth, though, as the Mets scored five. One of those runs came on a Bautista single, his lone hit in four trips to the plate. All told, Stroman lasted 4.2 innings, surrendering six runs on six hits while striking out two and walking four.
“There were some command issues tonight, primarily with his breaking ball,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He bailed himself out with a couple of nice double plays. I can’t say he was rolling along but he was effective and then they got to him in the fifth inning. He left some balls up and threw a lot of pitches in that inning. So it was kind of a mixed bag.”
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In need of 13 outs from the bullpen, the Blue Jays turned to recently promoted right-handers Luis Santos and Rhiner Cruz, along with Aaron Loup. Pitching in the majors for the first time since 2013, Cruz completed two scoreless innings.
“He was throwing well down there in triple-A,” Gibbons said. “He has a good arm. We saw that in spring training. Any time a guy gets back to the big leagues, keep battling, it’s tough to get here and really tough to stay, you feel for those guys and he did a nice job tonight.”
At the plate, a couple of Blue Jays veterans had big nights, but the lineup was largely quiet. The resurgent Kendrys Morales homered, doubled and singled, scoring all three Toronto runs as his season OPS climbed to .719.
“I’ve been working a lot in the cage, and actually put a little more work in today,” Morales said through interpreter Josue Peley. “It worked out pretty well right away, and hopefully it can keep going.”
Russell Martin also reached four times, and now has a .333 on-base percentage on the year despite his .178 average and six homers. Still, it added up to another loss for the Blue Jays and another tough night for the rotation.
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