CLEVELAND — When Trent Thornton was growing up, his favourite pitcher was Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. He loved the way the future hall-of-famer competed on the mound. The way the big right-hander focused on his craft, and pitched with a fiery mean streak no matter who he was pitching against, or which middling Blue Jays team he was pitching for. If Thornton goes on to have a career anywhere near as great as Halladay’s, he’ll consider himself very fortunate.
Friday, on a cool Ohio night, Thornton at least did one thing better than his idol. He completed his second career start with 15 combined strikeouts, edging Halladay’s franchise record of 13 set back in 1998. After the game, Thornton had just been informed of the feat by a club official, and still looked a little awestruck when he met with media.
“I was actually just told that,” Thornton said. “I haven’t really thought too much about it. But that’s pretty cool.
“You hear about [Halladay’s] preparation and his routine and how amazing he was as a player. I just really idolized him growing up.”
After holding Cleveland to only a pair of runs on three hits and two walks over 5.2 innings Friday, striking out seven in the process, Thornton now boasts a 1.69 ERA through his first two major-league starts. His strikeouts (15) more than double his combined hits and walks (7).
“Very impressed, very impressed,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He gave us a chance. That’s two outstanding starts by the kid.
“He’s gotten a chance and he’s taken advantage of it. That’s all you can ask for from a pitcher, and he’s done it. He’s been really good.”
Like he did in his first start, Thornton leaned on a 93-94-m.p.h. fastball and snapped off some wicked curveballs, three of which earned him a third strike. After the game, Thornton said he wasn’t particularly happy with his curveball command, and the 25-year-old did spike a few. But it speaks to the quality of the pitch that Cleveland hitters still weren’t able to resist chasing it at times.
“If he doesn’t have his location, he’s got good stuff, so he can out-stuff you,” Montoyo said. “I like him a lot.”
Thornton’s now averaging the fourth-highest curveball spin rate in the majors at 3,064 revolutions per minute. When you spin your breaking ball that ferociously, you’re bound to bounce a few. But Thornton said the primary issue Friday was a lack of feel, and the cold weather he was pitching in.
“It’s just kind of the grip,” he said. “It was a little cooler than it was in Toronto. But sometimes it’s just release point. I need to elevate it a little bit. That’s pretty much it.”
Inconsistent release point or not, Thornton still cruised through his first six batters, retiring them all. But it was a heater that Thornton got beat on in the third, as he left full-count, 94-m.p.h. fastball on the inner half to Cleveland catcher Kevin Plawecki, who turned on it and drove the ball more than 400 feet over the left field wall. Thornton walked another batter in the inning, but it was erased thanks to a nifty 3-6-3 double play started and finished by Rowdy Tellez.
The other run was allowed in the fifth, when Thornton’s first pitch of the inning was shot into left-centre by Hanley Ramirez, forcing the Blue Jays starter to tone down his high leg kick and pitch out of the stretch. He came back to get a pair of infield pop-ups on fastballs, but he left his first pitch to Cleveland third baseman Max Moroff — another heater — on the plate and watched it get driven to the wall in right.
That’s where the trouble continued, as the ball was not quickly fielded by Socrates Brito, not well-thrown to the cut-off man, and not cleanly fielded by said cut-off man, Richard Urena, allowing Ramirez to score easily from first and Moroff to cruise into third. Thornton got out of the inning with a strikeout and screamed into his glove as he walked back to the dugout.
“I definitely felt like my stuff was better my first start. Today I was kind of struggling with my slider and my curveball,” Thornton said. “But I was able to battle back and make pitches when I needed to for the most part. You know, I gave up a home run to Plawecki, just a fastball that kind of leaked over the middle. And then same thing with that triple. But, at the end of the day, I felt like I made some pretty good pitches. [Catcher Luke Maile] called a really good game again. I just go out there and compete and kind of do what I try to do to help the team win.”
Thornton likely could have gone deeper into the game, but was operating on a strict 90-pitch limit. That’s why Montoyo was up and out of the dugout to lift him from his start after he walked Jake Bauers in the sixth with his 92nd pitch. It’s probably the only thing that kept him from his second consecutive quality start.
“The biggest thing for me is I was getting into deeper counts and I was elevating my pitch count,” he said. “When I’m able to put guys away quick, I’m able to pitch longer in the game. And that’s ideally what I’d like every time out.”
Thornton will of course have to continue adjusting and evolving as opponents are exposed to more video on him and better formulate their plans at the plate. But it’s hard to ask for much more from Thornton through two starts. Or anyone in Toronto’s rotation, for that matter.
Toronto starters have now allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of the team’s first nine games. The pitching staff as a whole has combined to strike out a franchise-record 97 batters over that span, the third-most in MLB history through a team’s first nine games. If the Blue Jays could buy a few timely hits, they could be three games over .500 rather than three games below.
“Unbelievable — our pitchers have been unbelievable,” said shortstop Freddy Galvis. “We have to step up a little bit on the offence and try to help those guys out.”
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