TORONTO – Following Game 2 of the American League Division Series, LaTroy Hawkins promoted the fact that because there were no TVs in the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen, his fellow relievers could not see what happened when Brett Cecil suffered a calf injury.
Now, given the multiplicity of options available in the bullpen for a decisive fifth game on Wednesday against the Rangers – including Game 3 starter Marco Estrada – a traffic cop seems more of a pressing need than TVs.
Just ask reliever Mark Lowe, who admitted during Tuesday’s optional workout that one of his favourite things to do in a game has been tough enough as it is this post-season, what with Cecil’s injury and David Price and Marcus Stroman insisting on playing catch in the bullpen in Game 4.
"I try to put myself in a position where I kind of like to manage along with the manager during a game – and, yeah, sometimes in the playoffs, it’s tough," said Lowe. "When that happens, you just have to stay ready; to try and feel the game situations where you may be called upon."
The Blue Jays could have been forgiven for feeling as if they’d been eliminated from the ALDS upon their return home, such was the kvetching and wailing about manager John Gibbons’ use of David Price in Game 4 despite the fact that knuckleballer R.A. Dickey had a healthy lead. The truth is, the Blue Jays – Gibbons in particular – decided that Stroman was going to be their Game 5 starter some time in the third inning of Game 2, when Stroman started to carve up the Rangers after Price did not get a single swing and miss on his fastball in a Game 1 loss to the Rangers – an alarming occurrence that led one Blue Jays executive to suggest off-the-record that Price looked "gassed." And with Aaron Loup not available and Price not used to being warmed up, sat down, and warmed up again, Gibbons resolved to go with Price as long as he could once he put him in Game 4.
Fact is, had Price not run into trouble in the eighth, he might have finished it off.
Stroman isn’t starting because Gibbons is a fan of the narrative; he is, simply, the Blue Jays best starter right now, with the best stuff.
"Really, every game he’s pitched since he’s come back has been a meaningful game for this team," said Gibbons. "He’s got a great arm; he’s got great stuff, whatever you want to call it. But there’s something different about him, too, and I expect if anybody can rise to the occasion, it’s him."
Stroman’s story is, of course, well known. He arrived in the majors the day he came out of the womb, and made four starts this season after recovering from a torn left ACL suffered during a spring training drill. He has allowed all of five earned runs in his last 29 innings, including a seven-inning stint in Game 2 in which his teammates booted around the ball. He owns teams in the Rogers Centre, and as teammate Josh Donaldson put it Tuesday: "He wants to be in the spotlight; he looks for it.
"He’s good to play behind for a team like us, because he’s going to get a lot of ground balls when he’s on. The key for us will be to play good defence behind him."
Stroman bounced around the clubhouse Tuesday, saying that if he had to measure his excitement level on scale of one to 10, "I’d probably say it’s a 10 right now, and I can only imagine tomorrow." Thinking back to his long rehabilitation, Stroman remarked: "It’s a perfect situation that kind of played out in my head. And it’s happening … and I mean … I get the chills now even just thinking about being in the position I’m in now."
Speaking about playing things out in your head, here’s the state of the bullpen that will be behind Stroman when he takes the field at the Rogers Centre …
• Loup, R.A. Dickey, Dioner Navarro and Mark Buehrle were the only players to not put in an appearance in the clubhouse during Tuesday’s optional workout. The status of Loup, who left the team just before Monday’s game due to a family medical emergency, was unknown as of the workout, with manager Gibbons saying he hoped Loup might be back in time for the 4:07 p.m. ET first pitch, but that he was prepared to manage the game without him. Due to the injury to Cecil, Loup is the only left-handed option on the Blue Jays roster – along with …
• Price, who still maintained that he would be available in some capacity on Wednesday even though Gibbons said: "Don’t count on it." In the dugout later, Gibbons spoke quietly about the role Price had played in getting the Blue Jays to the post-season, and there was a hint that the manager was concerned about how worn down Price might be. "We don’t get here without him," Gibbons said, making clear that even though Price is not under contract for next year he didn’t feel he had carte blanche to abuse the pitcher’s arm. Gibbons smiled when it was suggested the tip-off would be whether Price elects to watch the game from the bullpen or dugout. "Yeah, that would be," he said. Gibbons also offered another alternative out of the blue, that being …
• Estrada, the Game 3 starter and prohibitive Game 1 starter for the AL Championship Series (should the Blue Jays make it that far). Perhaps Gibbons was simply running up a trial balloon to muck around with the mind of his counterpart with the Rangers, Jeff Banister, but Estrada has had ample experience as a reliever – he was a swingman with the Milwaukee Brewers last season, and made six relief appearances for the Blue Jays this year before moving into the rotation – and he is able to warm up quickly. Estrada threw just 89 pitches in Game 3, a 5-1 win, and has equal splits against left-handers and right-handers (an opponents average of .203 against lefties and .204 against righties this season) and might be available for a couple of outs. Estrada has had success against Choo and Prince Fielder, albeit with a relatively small sample size.
Gibbons’ strength as a manager – at least, among his supporters including general manager Alex Anthopoulos – is his ability to handle a bullpen. But it’s also a fact that in the post-season, bullpen usage is more than ever under the microscope, because so much organizational energy is focused on breaking down every miniscule detail of every matchup. It’s one thing to say "all hands on deck …" but isn’t there something to be said for going with the relievers that brought your team to the playoffs in the first place?
I asked Lowe what went through his mind and the minds of the other relievers when they saw Price and even Stroman in the bullpen for Game 4.
"Honestly, there are some guys it might get to," he said. "I mean, I’ve been in a few bullpens where it might have. But this one … I just think this entire bullpen has one mentality: we all want to win ball games."
Stroman said that although he was in the bullpen for Game 4, he knew Gibbons’ plan. "There was talks prior to the game that (they) wouldn’t like to use both of us," he said. "So once he (Price) went in, I kind of figured I would get the ball in Game 5."
And so he will. It is the right call; it was the only call, in truth, after what the Blue Jays saw from Price in Game 1.
"He defied all the odds, for sure," Gibbons said of Stroman. "I didn’t expect it … but thank God he’s here."