“He’s defied all the odds, that’s for sure”, manager John Gibbons said. Every time a team from Toronto miraculously doesn’t suck, everyone from Canada is suppose to band together, hand in hand, and support their team.
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The Blue Jays could very well have lined up David Price, a five-time Major League Baseball All-Star and perennial Cy Young Award candidate as the games top pitcher, to start in the game.
But the 24-year-old amazed fans and his teammates when came back from rehab and went 4-0 in his four pitching starts.
“He enjoys being in that spotlight, he kind of feeds off of that energy and we feed off his energy”, said catcher Russell Martin, who has compared the 180-pound Stroman to a similarly sized pitcher, Pedro Martinez.
Gibbons described Stroman as cocky – not in a bad way, of course, because Stroman has shown that he can perform in the big leagues.
The right to host Saturday’s NL Championship Series opener will be decided Thursday when the Mets and Dodgers play Game 5 of their NL Division Series.
Tulowitzki, still far from 100 percent from a collision that forced him to miss 19 games after being acquired by the Blue Jays, had certainly flexed his muscles on the field Sunday night in Game 3, a 5-1 win over the Texas Rangers.
Josh Donaldson, with a two-run shot in the first, Chris Colabello and Kevin Pillar each hit home runs as the Blue Jays built a 7-0 lead through the first three innings. “That’s a comforting feeling that we’ve got a guy on the mound that’s going to go for us that has been here, has done it, and is quite capable of continuing to do it”. The series-deciding game will be played on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 4:07 p.m. ET. Shin-Soo Choo, already with two hits, was coming to the plate.
Even though Hamels had a solid effort in Game 2 with only two earned runs allowed (four runs total) in seven innings, the Blue Jays offense playing to its ability is much scarier. The ALDS is now tied at two games each.
Holland (4-3) starts Game 4 against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (11-11).
“We did it in 2010, so why not 2015?”
“What we didn’t want to happen is a couple guys on base”, said Gibbons. “They go and look at it and they say it’s all right”. “I’m happy that he’s going to be out there for Game 5”. Stroman is 9-2 with a 2.45 ERA lifetime at the park. Instead of getting two outs, Houston gave up five runs to blow a four-run lead. The Rangers got three runs off Price, who was gone after a two-out RBI single by Elvis Andrus in the eighth that made it 8-4. There were the two September games – both wins – against the New York Yankees, the team chasing the Jays in the AL East standings. Cole is notorious for giving up early runs in the 1 and 2 innings and then he gets stronger as the game progresses. His only other postseason victory was also in relief. Having Adrian Beltre back at third will help Hamels. In Game 2, Gimenez’s high chopper in the second inning allowed Odor to go from first to third, and he ended up scoring on Hanser Alberto’s sacrifice fly.
“We factored it in when we were looking to acquire starters”, Anthopoulos said, “but you had no assurances and no guarantees”.
Hamels and Stroman will pitch on regular rest. His prep work for a possible Game 5 began with the Rangers up 2-0 in the best-of-five series.
Price was hit hard in the Game 1 loss to Texas.
“Because I’m an Expos fan”, McGimpsey said simply.
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“I just appreciate that he’s a big fan of the team, I really do”.
