TAMPA – As he strolled through the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse one recent morning, Trent Thornton was stopped by a teammate who patted the right-hander on the chest and gave him an approving nod.
“Yeah, I’m super-big now,” Thornton said, grinning in self-deprecation at the hyperbole.
He may not be all swole, as the kids say these days, but the 26-year-old favourite for the fifth starter’s job is certainly stronger this spring after dramatically intensifying the amount of weight he pushed around during his off-season workouts.
The regimen, created for him by the Blue Jays, was vastly different from those in years past, when he’s “been nervous about getting bulkier” out of fear it would come at the expense of his athleticism. The key was finding a balance in order to build up more so he’s better prepared to withstand the rigours of hauling starter innings over the course of a big-league season.
“I’ve stressed flexibility my whole life so I wanted to make sure I was doing everything necessary to keep that flexibility and range of motion,” Thornton said. “Normally, during the off-season prior to this one, I hadn’t gotten much treatment or soft tissue (work) and now I was going twice a week, making sure my muscles were loose.
“Deadlifts were one of my biggest things, getting my legs stronger. I definitely focused on my lower half, but everything I did, I intensified the weight. I’m not saying I’m jacked by any means, because I’m not, but I wanted to prove to myself that I’m stronger than I thought I am, so I pushed myself harder as far as actual weight goes.”
The looming grind will actually determine how many dividends he reaps from all that.
More immediate feedback on another winter focal point, honing his changeup, came Saturday during two clean innings of work in the Blue Jays’ 2-1 win over the New York Yankees in their Grapefruit League opener.
Thornton was a little wild out of the gate, walking leadoff batter D.J. LeMahieu, before settling quickly and retiring six straight. Most important from his vantage point were the three changeups he threw that “felt really, really good.”
“I got a swing and miss,” he continued. “I threw one for a ball, but it was a strike-to-ball type pitch, depending on what the count was. And I got a weak contact…
“It has been the worst pitch for me every year,” he added later. “To feel that confident in it, this early, is definitely a good sign for me because I think it can open up a big door for me just being able to play other pitches off that. It’s another huge weapon because I think the changeup is one of the best pitches in baseball.”
To put that in perspective, Statcast data doesn’t identify a single change he threw in 2019, when he was the only Blue Jays starter to both start and finish the season in the rotation and led the team with 154.1 innings pitched and 149 strikeouts.
Thornton’s primary weapons are his fastball, slider and curveball, all thrown at an 88th percentile spin rate that suggests significant upside for the offerings. He’s also throwing a two-seamer and a cutter, but fastball command, something that was rusty Saturday, remains pivotal.
“I know my stuff plays, my stuff is good enough,” he said. “If I’m behind in counts, it doesn’t matter.”
A reliable changeup helps a pitcher control bat speed and can sometimes be used to get easy outs early in the count. Thornton began tinkering with the pitch toward the end of last season, when he began copying some of Clay Buchholz’s grips.
“I didn’t just pick it up, I stole it from him,” Thornton quipped of how he’s now gripping his change, which “fades down and away (from righties) and plays off the two-seam that I picked up as well.”
“It’s just coming out of my hand much better on a more consistent basis and that’s the biggest thing for me, because I would cut changeups,” he added. “I would just throw them in the first, miss up. But now I’m getting that pretty consistent action with it where I can pretty much put it where I want to.”
Manager Charlie Montoyo pointed to the change as one of the afternoon’s highlights for Thornton, pleased enough to add that, “I’m hoping he builds from that and takes it into the season.”
The exact role for Thornton is officially undetermined, although given all he accomplished last season he’d really need to show poorly and have someone pitch him out of a job.
Still, he’s wisely taking nothing for granted, saying the ostensible competition with Shun Yamaguchi and the delayed Ryan Borucki, who is set to start playing catch Monday after experiencing elbow tightness, “lights a fire under your butt.”
Hence the work this winter, with visions of not only surpassing his inning total but also bettering the nine quality starts he delivered as a rookie, an important personal measure of performance.
“It was a little hard to do last year because I was on a pitch count and I was on an innings-limit type thing, but if I have a quality start, I’m doing everything right,” Thornton said. “I’m getting deep into the game, I’m giving the team a chance to win and I’m most likely getting guys out. That’s what I look at, not necessarily ERA. Strikeouts are nice, but if I can keep the team in the game, I’m doing my job as a starter.”
By simply surviving last year, Thornton more than accomplished that. He’s looking for more now, trusting in the work he put in over the winter to help ensure it happens.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
