In 2018, when he was taking regular turns in the Milwaukee Brewers rotation, Chase Anderson allowed a .758 OPS his first time through an order, a .639 OPS in his second, and an .894 OPS in his third. The season prior — easily Anderson’s best as a major-leaguer — the discrepancy wasn’t quite as pronounced, but the trend was the same. Hitters went from batting .216 his first trip through and .195 his second to .264 his third.
During the 2019 season, Milwaukee endeavoured to keep him from seeing a lineup a third time. In nearly half of his 32 starts, he exited after facing 18 batters or fewer. In 11 of his outings, he got to go between one and four batters into his third trip — in the final six, he got to go between five and seven. He completed six innings on only three occasions and surpassed 100 pitches just once.
So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see Anderson lifted Monday after five innings, having completed his second trip through the Baltimore Orioles order on 84 pitches. Never mind that Anderson was absolutely cruising, allowing only a run on three hits while striking out eight. Nor that he retired the final 12 batters he faced. Toronto Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was just playing the percentages.
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That Monday’s result was unfavourable, as Wilmer Font entered for Anderson and quickly coughed up a game-tying run as the Blue Jays went on to lose 4-3, does not confirm that the process was faulty. You can certainly quibble with the usage of Font, who’s allowed a ton of hard contact this season, particularly with Thomas Hatch rested and available. It’s even fair to wonder if A.J. Cole would’ve made more sense, assuming Montoyo was saving Rafael Dolis for a leverage spot later in the game.
But Anderson was always going to be lifted. This is what analytically-minded organizations do. Like the Brewers, who have been to the postseason each of the last two years and set the standard for finding novel ways to maximize a pitching staff in October. And like the Blue Jays, who are currently cruising towards the playoffs and likely to try emulating that same creative pitching deployment once they get there.
Come October, it’s win-or-go-home baseball. You’re no longer thinking about individual workloads and letting pitchers build confidence from outing to outing. You’re thinking about getting 27 outs with whatever combination of pitchers makes the most tactical sense.
And this strange season, with its short schedule and expanded rosters, ought to present even more opportunity for novel approaches. We’ve already seen the Blue Jays doing it. The tendency is to bemoan the lack of length Toronto’s gotten from its starting pitching and suggest the club should to be getting pitchers deeper into games. But maybe that’s not a flaw. Maybe that’s a feature.
No one’s winning a SABR award by suggesting that starting pitchers tend to get hit harder their third time through the order. But that tendency has been even more pronounced this season. Entering Monday’s games, MLB starters had a collective 6.34 ERA on their third trip this year, up from last season’s 5.79 and 2018’s 5.50.
And Blue Jays starters have done their part to aid in that increase, pitching to a 9.19 ERA when facing an opposition lineup a third time. Sunday’s game was an excellent example, as Tanner Roark came back out for the sixth inning after rolling through five, and promptly allowed a double, a single and a homer during his third trip through Baltimore’s lineup, coughing up a lead in the process.
With 11 pitchers in Toronto’s bullpen — many of them converted starters — that doesn’t need to happen. It’s always a tough conversation for a manager when lifting a veteran workhorse like Roark who had thrown only 81 pitches through his five innings. But you don’t play to protect egos, you play to win games — this season more than ever.
“We want to give our team the best chance to win,” said Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker. “So, when you have arms that are ready and able in the bullpen, it’s tough not to go to those guys. Especially when you see the history of third time through the order for certain pitchers.”
Why, when you have 2019 starters such as Hatch, Anthony Kay, Ryan Borucki, Julian Merryweather, Shun Yamaguchi, Jacob Waguespack and Sean Reid-Foley all in your bullpen and capable of pitching multiple innings, would you ever push a starting pitcher any longer than necessary? It’s one thing with a Cy Young candidate like Hyun Jin Ryu, who’s earned his rope. It’s another with league-average innings-eaters like Roark and Anderson.
“It changes things. It changes how you look at a ballgame,” Walker said. “The hitters have a tough time with the different looks coming out of the bullpen. It makes it difficult for them making switches throughout the course of the game. They don’t know who’s going to be coming in, who they’re going to be facing late in the ballgame.”
The Blue Jays have to be careful, of course, not to stretch their bullpen too thin. But as they look at adding Nate Pearson and Matt Shoemaker to their mix of bulk pitchers in the coming weeks, and Ken Giles to the back end of the bullpen possibly as soon as this weekend, that concern alleviates.
Now you can add in Robbie Ray and Ross Stripling, each acquired ahead of Monday’s trade deadline. And Jordan Romano, who’s expected to return by the end of the season. Patrick Murphy’s standing by in Rochester if the club wants to add another hard-throwing arm into the mix. Sam Gaviglio and T.J. Zeuch are there as well, if low-leverage innings are in need of eating. There are plenty of options.
So, if anything, we’ll likely see the Blue Jays get more and more creative with their pitching deployment as the postseason nears. And they might just go full Brewers when we reach October. The club will surely do its best to line up Ryu and Taijuan Walker for its first two games of the playoffs. But beyond that pair, things could get interesting very quickly.
Think Ray for three innings, followed by Pearson for two and Stripling for two, with short stints the rest of the way based on matchups. Or say Anderson gives you four innings, then Merryweather and Kay combine for three, before the back-end of the bullpen closes things out. Or maybe Merryweather opens for an inning or two, giving way to a bulk outing from Shoemaker or Hatch, before Borucki comes on to chew up a couple mid-to-late innings and get you into the eighth.
It’s all on the table as the Blue Jays have built out a deep, versatile pitching staff that can be deployed in a variety of ways. Every team would love a five-man rotation of thoroughbreds capable of going seven every time out. But no team has that. In today’s MLB, creativity is key. And from the Blue Jays, we’re about to see even more of it.
“We don’t necessarily have to force the starter through the third time through the lineup,” Walker said. “We’re going to try our best not to force a starting pitcher into a situation that’s not ideal. I still love the history of baseball and starters going nine innings. But it’s just different nowadays.”
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.
