TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are looking at reinserting Francisco Liriano into their ever-evolving rotation Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays, something which could push R.A. Dickey all the way back to next week’s visit to Anaheim.
Manager John Gibbons said Friday that Liriano was unlikely to be used this weekend against the Boston Red Sox to have him ready for a possible outing Monday against the Rays. That would have been Dickey’s day after he was bumped from his scheduled turn Sunday in favour of Aaron Sanchez.
"There’s a chance (Liriano) is going to start Monday, so he probably won’t" be used in relief, said Gibbons. "He might, no guarantees."
The Blue Jays could also start Marcus Stroman on Monday with Liriano going to Tuesday, with Marco Estrada pitching on his normal five days rest in the Wednesday matinee finale.
Under such a scenario, J.A. Happ could start Thursday’s series opener at the Los Angeles Angels on his regular rest, with Dickey slotting in Friday in place of Sanchez as a way to restrain the 24-year-old’s workload.
Sanchez could then be reinserted Sept. 20 in Seattle, which would line him up for Baltimore on Sept. 27 and the Red Sox in the season finale Oct. 2. Such an alignment would also set the Blue Jays up with Stroman and Dickey/Liriano for the Orioles series while Estrada and Happ pitch the other games in Boston.
MARTIN SITS: The Blue Jays are hoping Russell Martin will be ready for action Saturday after the catcher sat out Friday’s series opener against the Red Sox with a left knee injury.
Martin tweaked his knee during Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to the New York Yankees, an issue he later said he’d been dealing with for a while.
"He’s still pretty sore," John Gibbons said. "We’ll see. We’ll just check each day."
Dioner Navarro started in his place.
TRAVIS WORKS ON D: Second baseman Devon Travis took about 30 groundballs during early work with third base coach Luis Rivera on Friday after a stretch with six errors in his previous 14 games.
"I went to Luis when the last series was over and said I wanted to get some work in," said Travis. "It wasn’t even anything in particular, it’s just slowing the game down. Most of the time when I make mistakes it’s me trying to move too fast, so just trying to slow myself down is the biggest thing."
Travis has generally been a strong fielder for the Blue Jays, but since Aug. 3 has made nine of his 10 errors this year. He’s also been playing through an injury to the third knuckle of his right hand, although he says that isn’t related to his recent miscues.
"Just going too quick for sure," Travis said. "Honestly, I feel it’s the one thing that causes me problems. This game is fast enough as it is, trying to slow the game down is definitely the biggest thing."