Apr 21, 2018
The Mitchell Report: Stroman has rough outing in loss to Yankees
Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman was having a solid outing prior to the sixth inning, when the Yankees unleased an offensive onslaught on their way to a 9-1 win in New York. TSN Baseball Reporter Scott Mitchell provides his key takeaways from the game.
Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman was having a solid outing prior to the sixth inning, when the Yankees unleased an offensive onslaught. The Yanks took Saturday's game 9-1 in New York. TSN Baseball Reporter Scott Mitchell provides his key takeaways from the game.
GAME 20, APRIL 21: JAYS AT YANKEES
RESULT: 9-1 loss
RECORD: 13-7
STREAK: L1
1—It looked like Marcus Stroman was about to put together by far his best start of the season until a grenade went off in the sixth inning when the Yankees sent 12 men to the plate and finished with seven runs in the frame. That turned a 2-1 game at the time into a 9-1 drubbing that would hold up the rest of the way. Prior to the sixth inning, Stroman’s only hiccup was in the third when he issued a two-out walk to Brett Gardner and then served up a meatball to the very next batter, which happened to be Aaron Judge. While you can say Stroman pitched well for five innings — the 5.1 innings pitched still represented his longest outing of the season in four starts — the final line doesn’t look pretty as the right-hander was tagged for eight runs (six earned) on five hits and four walks while striking out five. Stroman, who has given up 21 runs in 20 innings this season, is scheduled to take an ugly 8.55 ERA to the mound next Friday at home in the series opener against the Texas Rangers.
2—Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drew his second straight start at the keystone Saturday afternoon, picking up a base hit in the fifth inning to start his big-league career on a mini two-game hitting streak. Devon Travis is day-to-day with a sore left foot after fouling a ball of it Thursday. Travis being hurt and needing a few days off helps fully explain the Gurriel call-up. With Gift Ngoepe contributing nothing with the bat, since Gurriel was already on the 40-man roster, it’s easy to give him a short cameo to see what he can do. Rather than rush Travis back to get Ngoepe off the field, this allows him to rest, while giving the organization a look at a player who's already 24 years old against live bullets. It’s a similar scenario to last May when Anthony Alford, who was also on the 40-man, was surprisingly called up straight from Double-A, as well. At worst, it’s a learning experience. At best, they hit the ground running.
3—After sitting Friday night, Randal Grichuk was back in right field Saturday afternoon. While he still couldn’t buy a hit, he did walk twice and score a run. The ball wasn’t finding the barrel of anyone wearing a Jays uniform Saturday, though, as even the white-hot Teoscar Hernandez and Luke Maile suffered through 0-for-4 afternoons.
4—The Jays need just one more win to guarantee at least a .500 record in March/April. The last time they played .500 or better baseball in the first month of the season was 2012 when they went 12-11. Manager John Farrell’s club finished that year 73-89.
5—Here’s something that may surprise you. According to Baseball Savant’s sprint speed numbers, Aledmys Diaz is the fastest Blue Jay on the basepaths this season, covering ground at 28.7 feet per second, just ahead of Hernandez (28.2), Kevin Pillar (28.2) and Grichuk (27.9). Justin Smoak is the slowest at 23.7. Last year, the MLB average was 27 feet per second.