ARLINGTON, Texas – There are plenty of questions big and small about the starting rotation facing the Toronto Blue Jays right now, and what exactly Trent Thornton is gets somewhat lost among them.
Pressed into big-league duty at the end of spring training by Ryan Borucki’s elbow injury, the rookie right-hander started out hot and then went through a rough patch. For a team in desperate need of steady innings, especially after the season-ending injury to Matt Shoemaker and coming off an ugly sweep by the Los Angeles Angels, that’s far from ideal.
That’s what made Thornton’s seven innings of one-hit brilliance Friday night — in a gutsy 1-0, 12-inning, four-hour victory over the Texas Rangers settled on an Ariel Jurado throwing error triggered by a Danny Jansen sacrifice bunt — so heartening.
Not only was it an important step forward for a 25-year-old still feeling his way around the majors, it was also a timely contribution to a team that couldn’t officially announce Thomas Pannone as its starter Saturday until after the game, lest he be needed to cover innings, and designated Alen Hanson for assignment to make room for righty Derek Law on the roster.
“What a game he had,” manager Charlie Montoyo raved about Thornton. “Going that deep into the game, knowing we need pitchers for (Saturday), he was great.
“Whatever happened in this game, I was happy already going into those extra innings because I knew Trent had pitched so well and that’s good news for us.”
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Relying primarily on a four-seam fastball that sat at 93.2 m.p.h. and topped out at 94.9, along with a curveball he could throw for a strike or use to get chase, Thornton cleverly worked through what had been a hot-hitting lineup that featured four left-handed batters and two switch-hitters.
He retired the first 12 batters he faced, and the first hit against him was a Nomar Mazara blooper to left that went off the glove of a sliding Freddy Galvis. Teoscar Hernandez picked up the ball and threw out Mazara trying to stretch at second base, and, after a Joey Gallo walk, Thornton retired the next two batters to escape the inning.
A Delino DeShields walk in the sixth was followed by a Shin-Soo Choo liner to third base, where Vladimir Guerrero Jr., playing his second-straight road series against one of his dad’s former teams, caught it and threw across the diamond for a double play.
That gave Thornton a new career high in innings — he went 5.2 frames of two-run ball April 5 at Cleveland — one he pushed further with a clean seventh. He made a conscious effort to be more aggressive with his fastball in his last outing, when he threw five innings of one-run ball against Oakland, and rode that approach again Friday.
“It was more of a mental thing for me,” said Thornton, who sat down with pitching coach Pete Walker and catcher Luke Maile, “and talked about my attack plan and what I’m trying to do with it, and (it) clicked for me. When I stick with that the results have been pretty good so I want to continue to build off it.”
Thornton finished with five strikeouts, primarily riding high arm-side heaters and low glove-side breaking balls.
“It definitely helps to show the other team that I can throw that for a strike and throw my more aggressive curveball when I’m ahead in the count for chase,” said Thornton. “(All) of my strikeouts were on fastballs but if I’m commanding my curveball it helps my fastball a lot. I felt like I executed pitches pretty well.”
The only problem for Thornton is that the offence was largely silenced by Mike Minor, who allowed seven hits and two walks over eight innings of work, striking out nine.
The Blue Jays’ best opportunity against him came in the first, when Eric Sogard walked to open the game and Galvis singled him to third. But strikeouts of Randal Grichuk and Justin Smoak ahead of a 108.1 m.p.h. laser by Guerrero right to centre-fielder DeShields ended that threat.
Another opportunity went for naught in the eighth, when Galvis ripped a two-out double and got waved home on a Grichuk single, but Gallo’s one-hop throw home beat him comfortably.
Guerrero was back in the lineup after a day off in Anaheim, wearing his batting gloves again after dropping them later in his second game against the Angels. “I know they were giving me good pitching in Anaheim. I missed a couple of pitches that I shouldn’t have missed and I was a bit upset with myself so I just walked up there without the batting gloves,” he said beforehand in comments interpreted by Hector Lebron.
He struck out in the fourth and hit into a double play in the sixth before beating out an infield single off Chris Martin in the bottom of the ninth. He went first-to-third on a two-out Brandon Drury single but was stranded there when Chris Martin struck out Hernandez on three pitches.
The Blue Jays wasted another chance in the 10th when Billy McKinney was stranded at second after a Galvis groundout and Grichuk strikeout. Ryan Tepera and Daniel Hudson worked out of jams in the 10th and 11th innings before the offence finally broke through in the 12th.
Drury and Hernandez opened the inning with consecutive singles, Jansen, after falling behind 0-2 in a bunt-or-bust call, dropped his fourth career sacrifice and first since triple-A in 2018. Drury scored when Jurado missed third base and threw a ball slick from heavy rain into the stands.
After missing at his first bunt attempt and then taking Strike 2, “I’m like, I have to get this down, otherwise I’m just a terrible baseball player,” said Jansen. “Definitely my heart was racing a little bit, but any way I can help the team to win, I’m going to do it.”
Montoyo said the Blue Jays have consistently practised bunting in the cage, which is why he didn’t hesitate to call on Jansen to square up in a tight spot. Sogard laid down a sacrifice bunt in the 10th, as well, and it’s a weapon the new manager has now used eight times this season, three times more than during all of 2018.
“I like bunting,” said Montoyo. “We do it in the cage as often as we can because I believe, if you work at it, it’s kind of easy. If you don’t work at it, it’s not that easy.”
The Blue Jays failed to add on from there, with Smoak getting ejected by home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook for arguing a called third strike, but Ken Giles ensured Thornton’s outstanding outing, a gritty collective effort and one fateful bunt didn’t go to waste.
