As Yariel Rodriguez continues acclimation to Blue Jays rotation, bats break slump vs. Royals

TORONTO — Three separate elements from Yariel Rodriguez’s fourth big-league start are of note for the Toronto Blue Jays as the Cuban right-hander continues his acclamation to the rotation.

First, the Kansas City Royals became the first club to get a second crack at him, working him for three runs on six hits and three walks on 82 pitches in 3.2 innings Monday night. While it never felt like the outing might unravel on him, he did surrender four balls hit at 103.5 m.p.h. or harder plus two more at 97.4 and 98.3.

Second, this was his first time making consecutive starts on normal rest and it didn’t seem to impact his stuff much. His fastball sat at 93.9 m.p.h., down a tick from his average of 94.4, while it topped out at 97.6, meaning he still could reach back when needed. He did go heavier on slider than heater this time, 26 to 22, while featuring his splitter more often than he has, throwing 15 of them to up his usage from 10 to 18 per cent, but that was due to game-plan choice, rather than physical need.

Third, this was the first time Yariel Rodriguez started without Bowden Francis to piggyback behind him, which with Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia unavailable, made navigating the final 5.1 innings of a 6-5 victory all the more challenging for manager John Schneider.

All together then, the Blue Jays’ first game with five-plus runs since a 9-8 loss to the New York Yankees on April 6, led by Justin Turner’s two home runs and Danny Jansen’s solo shot, was particularly timely.

On a night the offence needed to do the heavy lifting, it did.

“It's going to be different aspects of the team that are going to get us W's,” said Turner. “Sometimes the pitching is going to carry us. Sometimes we've got to score more runs than them. That's just the nature of the game and how it goes. Did a good job tonight of getting ahead and the pitchers did a great job of stopping the bleeding when they had momentum and trying to build innings and limiting them to one run. You've got to tip your cap to them for nailing it down.”

Not just for Monday, as it’s a credit to the pitching staff and defence that the Blue Jays survived that 20-game stretch with five-or-less at 10-10.

Still, there was more leverage than ideal under the circumstances after Rodriguez didn’t make it through four, let alone five.

But 1.1 innings from Genesis Cabrera — including a pivotal bases-loaded strikeout of Vinnie Pasquantino to escape a jam left by Rodriguez in the fourth — followed by an inning each from Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza, Erik Swanson and, intriguingly, Nate Pearson handling the ninth, bridged the gap.

“A lot of pitches from Yariel, trying to get him an inning deeper, really,” said Schneider. “Overlooked is probably Cabby and Timmy's innings in those spots against Vinny and the lefties. So it lined up pretty well. I thought it was a good spot for Swanny and Nate knew he was kind of on standby. It could have been earlier, fifth or sixth inning. That's why the tack-on runs (on Davis Schneider’s RBI single in the fifth and Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s RBI double in the sixth) are huge, it allowed us to put Nate in the ninth.”

The Pearson move was especially interesting given that he got the top of the Royals lineup, Bobby Witt Jr. included, with John Schneider opting for Pearson's big velo over the experience of Swanson, who is still finding his way after opening the season on the injured list.

Pearson surrendered a leadoff single to Maikel Garcia before Witt hit into a fielder’s choice, Pasquantino flew out, pinch-hitter Salvador Perez put men on the corners with two out and Michael Massey struck out to the relief of a crowd of 29,879.

“It kind of just depended on where we landed,” John Schneider said of his pitching choices in the eighth and ninth. “Nate at the top of the order, like that really, with the way he's throwing the ball. If we were five-on-down (in the lineup for the ninth) it probably would have been flip-flopped.”

How all of the above played out is important with Rodriguez a part of the rotation for the foreseeable future.

"We're not necessarily thinking of him as a bulk guy right now — he's a starting pitcher," pitching coach Pete Walker said. "And we're hoping he's a two-times-through the order guy."

Given that the club was initially thinking about 100 innings this season for Rodriguez, who missed all of last year while coming to North America, there is a cap on how deep he can go each time out and how long the Blue Jays can roll in this alignment.

Alek Manoah will make his next rehab start with triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday — when he tests out a lower starting point with his hands in his delivery. His progress is important as the Blue Jays’ ideal alignment is a productive Manoah starting with Rodriguez going wire-to-wire in the bullpen.

That means an ongoing balance in the present with Rodriguez.

“We're just going to take it game-by-game, monitor him, obviously try not to push him too far,” said Walker. “We've already kind of gotten to a point where you could say it's fairly aggressive, but I still think that he's responding well. He wants the ball. And he does have a history of throwing. It's not like a 21-year-old that you're talking about. We're going to monitor him game-by-game. And if we have to go into a game with a lower threshold, that's possible, too. But right now, we're going to let him go and make adjustments as we need to.”

Rodriguez looked to make adjustments against the Royals, too, after allowing three runs on six hits and two walks in four-plus innings last week, when “I threw a lot of fastballs and sinkers,” he said. “I just wanted them to see more breaking balls.”

Whether to adapt his attack pattern “all depends on the way it goes the first time,” he explained through interpreter Hector Lebron. “Of course if it goes well, then I'll stick with the same plan. If it doesn't go as well, then maybe I'll make some adjustments. The first time for myself, it wasn't a good outing. Of course tonight I wanted to be better. Maybe not the way I wanted to. But I think it was OK.”

From purely a stuff perspective, it was more than OK in the eyes of Schneider, who felt the heavy slider usage suggested Rodriguez was “almost pitching to a strikeout a little bit more than he needed to because his fastball was so good. That led to the high pitch count.”

“But his plan was solid,” the manager continued, “he felt good, his stuff was right all night.”

Important feedback for the Blue Jays as they feel their way through Rodriguez’s workload management, while he takes a regular turn in the rotation without a dedicated long man behind him.