Tuesday night will not be remembered as good night for the Blue Jays. Closer Roberto Osuna blew a lead in the ninth inning, then the Tigers walked off with a 3-2 win in the tenth inning (box score). Ian Kinsler singled in the winning run. It's always rough when you grab defeat from the jaws of victory like that.
That's a tough loss, no doubt about it, but Tuesday was not all bad for the Blue Jays. Young right-hander Aaron Sanchez turned in a dominant performance against the Tigers, allowing two runs on three hits and walk in eight innings. He struck out 12 and got 11 ground ball outs compared to one only in the air. Sanchez faced 28 batters and four hit the ball out of the infield. Four!
When you see the video of Tuesday's start, you'll understand how he generated all those strikeouts and grounders. PitchFX says he averaged 96.0 mph and topped out at 98.0 mph with his trademark sinker, and he also broke off some nasty curveballs to get strike three. Check it out:
Tuesday's masterpiece gives the 23-year-old Sanchez a 2.91 ERA in 80 1/3 innings on the season, so he continued his emergence as one of the best young starters in baseball. He's struck out 23.2 percent of batters faced and gotten a ground ball on 59.5 percent of balls in play on the season, well above the league averages of 20.2 percent and 45.3 percent, respectively.
If there's a better recipe for success than strikeouts and grounders, I'd like to see it. Sanchez is making the jump to the next level this season -- he had a 3.55 ERA in 66 innings as a starter last season, but he walked (37) nearly as many batters as he struck out (42) -- and he's taking over as the staff ace. I know Marcus Stroman started Opening Day and is pretty good himself, but Sanchez has been flat out better in 2016.
The Blue Jays have gotten excellent work from their starters overall this season. Their rotation has a 3.58 ERA, second best in the AL behind the Rangers (3.42), and they lead all of baseball with a 389 1/3 innings. Toronto's bullpen has been pretty sketchy overall, so all those innings from the rotation are appreciated. It means less action for the shaky middle relief.
Those innings are also somewhat of a concern, at least for Sanchez. Maybe not a concern, but something worth keeping an eye on. He's at 80 1/3 innings on the season and his previous career high is 133 1/3 innings back in 2014. Sanchez might match his previous season high workload by the All-Star break with the way things are going.
Obviously the Blue Jays are aware of this and they'll figure out a way to keep Sanchez's workload in check in the second half. Skipping starts and things like that tend to do the trick. The team has also talked about moving him to the bullpen once his innings total reaches a certain point. Usually clubs don't like to let their young pitchers throw 30-40 more innings than their previous career high, putting Sanchez on target for 170 innings or so in 2016.
For now, Sanchez certainly seems to have figured things out as a starter at the big league level. He's not just holding his own, he's truly dominating. Look at what he did to the Tigers on Tuesday. Twelve strikeouts and 11 grounders? That's incredible. Sanchez is assuming the title of staff ace and establishing himself as one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball. It's becoming more and more obvious with each start.
