CHICAGO – In trying to get right over the past month and a half of struggle, Marcus Stroman has tried getting on top of the ball more to generate better downward plane, refining his repertoire and altering his pitch sequencing. The Toronto Blue Jays pored over his delivery to ensure he wasn’t tipping his pitches. They didn’t find anything. After his previous start in Baltimore against the Orioles, when he allowed four runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings, the 25-year-old right-hander felt he needed to stop “overanalyzing” things, that he was “in and out” in recent starts and that he was waiting for “it to click.”
Well, Stroman’s performance Sunday in a 5-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox showed that while he’s made some progress, to borrow from U2, he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. Though at some points he looked like his usual self, like during a seven-pitch first inning when his two-seamer ripped through the zone, he was also up and hittable at other times. There weren’t many cheapies among the seven hits he allowed and he also walked four in surrendering four earned runs. But with seven groundball outs and a double play, he’s got some things to build on.
“It was down pretty much all game, I got a bunch of groundballs and it was coming out a lot firmer,” Stroman said of his sinker. “It felt great, to be honest with you, I just felt like a couple of things didn’t go my way and then it kind of trickled into leaving some pitches up in bad situations. I know it didn’t look it but I felt much better out there and my sinker was where I need it to be, pretty much. …
“I’m looking forward to that next one, I definitely felt better,” he added later. “I know I wasn’t where I need to be but I definitely felt better.”
Stroman might have been able to help himself by making a better throw home on Adam Eaton’s squeeze in the third – his relay pulled Martin to the first base side of the dish allowing Tyler Saladino to slide in safely. But Melky Cabrera also gifted him an out in the second when he overran third base when a pitch squirted away from Martin to stifle another rally.
“I didn’t know where he was exactly in my peripherals,” Stroman said of Saladino on the Eaton bunt. “I probably should of came and gave it a little shuffle pass. I’m usually very prideful in my position and I feel I can make that play 10 out 10 times. I just kind of pulled Russ to the wrong side.”
On a different day, Stroman might have pitched with more breathing room, but against the all-world Chris Sale, there was precious little margin for error.
The perennial Cy Young Award candidate allowed only three hits and a walk over his first seven innings before surrendering solo shots to Troy Tulowitzki and Junior Lake in the eighth. That was it for the Blue Jays, who headed to Denver for three games against the Colorado Rockies with a fifth loss in their past seven contests. Only seven batters reached all game, and they didn’t have a single at-bat with a runner in scoring position.
“With Sale if you don’t attack early you’re going to be behind in the count, he was just pumping strikes,” said Tulowitzki. “It’s unfortunate we made a lot of first-pitch or two pitch outs because he was able to work deep in the game but that’s the way you’ve got to attack him because he’s going to pound strikes.”
The Blue Jays are also now 3-5 in Stroman’s past eight starts, a span in which he’s allowed 38 earned runs on 67 hits and 16 walks with 30 strikeouts in 45.1 innings pitched. Two of those wins came against bottom-feeding Minnesota and Philadelphia, with the other coming in a 10-9 slugfest with Boston.
After Eaton’s squeeze opened the scoring, Melky Cabrera lined a base hit to push the White Sox edge up to 2-0 in the third. They tacked on two more in the fifth when Tim Anderson opened the inning by whacking a two-seamer for his third homer, and Eaton walked, took third on a Cabrera single and scored on a wild pitch. Stroman recovered to strike out both Alex Avila and Brett Lawrie to end the frame.
“It was a step in the right direction,” said manager John Gibbons. “I thought his fastball had a little more life to it, that’s how it looked to me. Early on he was getting groundballs, that’s a good sign for him, that’s what he does. He got a couple big strikeouts to finish his five innings. It’s not what he wanted but he drew a tough assignment, too. You almost had to be perfect.”
Joe Biagini, pitching for the first time since relieving Stroman a week ago, logged two scoreless innings while Bo Schultz, up for the injured Gavin Floyd, surrendered a solo shot to J.B. Shuck while throwing a bunch of high-90s heat.
Stroman, meanwhile, will try to lock in on the gains he made Sunday and leverage them when he starts the Canada Day matinee against the Cleveland Indians on Friday.
“You don’t want to think when you’re out there, but I’ve been struggling so obviously I’ve been thinking in between starts, just doing everything I can to get myself where I need to be, but for the most part when I’m out there, I’m not thinking, I’m just trying to execute my pitches and get on the same wavelength as Russ (Martin),” said Stroman. “Definitely not thinking, maybe overthinking a little bit too much between starts, trying to change too much, but I’m not far from where I need to be, and I know it’s just around the corner.”
Notes: The Blue Jays recalled right-hander Ryan Tepera from triple-A Buffalo and optioned left-hander Chad Girodo after the game. Brett Cecil, who threw a rehab inning for the Bisons on Saturday, is expected to get another outing with them before rejoining the team Thursday in Toronto. … Left-hander Franklin Morales threw a clean inning Sunday in his first rehab appearance for the Bisons.