TORONTO – The demotion of Anthony Kay, in part to protect a wheezing bullpen and in part to recalibrate a promising lefty not pitching to his potential, triggered the latest instalment of Who Exactly is in the Toronto Blue Jays Rotation?
Manager Charlie Montoyo resolved one question mark Saturday when he confirmed that Ross Stripling will indeed make his next scheduled start Monday. The righty has been working on his mechanics with pitching coach Pete Walker in recent days, seeking to improve his command to better leverage his repertoire.
So, that leaves Kay’s spot unresolved, and it next comes up Wednesday at the New York Yankees. Montoyo said it could be a bullpen day, but do the Blue Jays really want to do that in the Bronx? More to the point, given the recent toll on their relievers, can they afford to?
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Interestingly, Nate Pearson happens to be on turn with Kay at triple-A Buffalo and while Kay was grinding through four innings Friday, the top pitching prospect worked three triple-A innings against Worcester, allowing a run on two hits with four strikeouts in his first start back from a minor shoulder impingement.
In theory, he could start Wednesday, but the Blue Jays already rushed him back once this season and you might recall that it didn’t go so hot. Given that list him, at best, under unlikely.
More intriguing is the guy people were clamouring for to make Stripling’s start Monday – Alek Manoah. The club’s other top pitching prospect’s fifth day comes up Monday but the Bisons are off then, so he’s next due to pitch Tuesday, when Steven Matz is on turn.
Manoah, then, could get an extra day and start Wednesday and the team hasn’t ruled it out just yet. There are lots of factors at play there https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-must-consider-bigger-picture-calling-alek-manoah/, but the Blue Jays may not have a choice if their bullpen gets worn out in the days beforehand.
Robbie Ray more than did his part to help out Saturday night, throwing a season-high seven innings in what finished as a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The veteran lefty didn’t issue a walk for the fifth time in eight starts – he’s logged 31.2 innings with 40 strikeouts in those outings – and his only blemish came in the fifth, when Mike Zunino sent a changeup over wall in left-centre.
Only once before has Ray made five walk-free starts in a season — during his all-star campaign of 2017.
“I did it before, but I feel like this year is a little bit different,” said Ray. “I feel like I have more weapons to use whereas maybe in the past, the slider’s always been the put-away pitch, or the curveball has been. I feel like now I have four pitches that I can throw in the zone and get outs with.”
The Zunino homer knotted the score 1-1, erasing the first-inning Teoscar Hernandez RBI double that was the only damage in five innings versus electric Rays rookie lefty Shane McClanahan.
The game stayed there until the eighth when Anthony Castro, fresh off the IL, surrendered his first run of the season on an RBI single by Manuel Margot, who went down to get a pretty good slider. Randy Arozarena set the table with a leadoff single, advancing to second on a Yandy Diaz groundout and then cleverly taking third when a slider in the dirt skipped mere feet away from Danny Jansen.
Pete Fairbanks, part of the Rays’ seemingly endless supply of bullpen dudes who throw 98, struck out Hernandez with two runners on in the eighth and then Taylor Walls extended the lead in the ninth when he took third on a wild pitch and scored on Jansen’s errant throw.
Diego Castillo then secured a ninth-straight Rays win and fourth straight Blue Jays loss with a clean ninth.
“When you play a hot team, you’ve got to play your A game and it hasn’t been our A game. That’s just it,” Montoyo said of the thin line between wins and losses in recent days. “When you get a chance to score, you’ve got to score and when you call a pitch out, you’ve got to make the right pitch to get the guy.
“Those little things. And when a team is hot like that, you’ve got to execute and play your A game. We just haven’t played our A game. We have played well, because they were all good games, but not the A game. Not a perfect game.”
Amid that, the Blue Jays’ roster churn included returning Joe Panik from a calf injury while placing Cavan Biggio on the injured list with a cervical spine ligament sprain. Panik and Santiago Espinal are slated to split time covering third base, but given how strong he’s been defensively, Espinal has a chance to win more reps if he plays well.
One thing the Blue Jays don’t plan to do is have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. take reps on the hot corner, as they’re reluctant to risk disrupting his emergence as a two-way force.
Leaving well enough alone makes sense, especially with their injured list count list moving up to 20 players and 21 stints, not including COVID moves, and the rotation roulette wheel spinning once again.
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