Stroman shines, Morrow waits as Jays topple Rays
Brandon Morrow has no choice but to pitch in relief this month. After spending four months on the disabled list, there is no time for him to rebuild his stamina and rejoin the Toronto Blue Jays’ rotation.
Manager John Gibbons has suggested a move to the bullpen might help the oft-injured Morrow to stay healthy. But as Morrow sees it, his September bullpen assignment is a necessary evil, not the herald of a new career path.
“I think I could still be effective as a starter,” he said before the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-4, a game in which Marcus Stroman was very effective as a starter. “I think that’s where you get your most important innings. I’d like to, going forward, be in that role next year and beyond.”
Which might well mean that Morrow will be starting for another team. Given his on-again, off-again career as a Toronto starter, the Jays are unlikely to pick up his $10-million club option. If management opts to buy him out for $1 million US, he said he still would listen to an offer to stay under a new deal, should the Jays be so inclined.
But the off-season market for starters will be ripe, as usual. And the Jays will have a crowd competing for their 2015 rotation.
Morrow made three relief ap- pearances during his minor-league rehab assignment after a long layoff to recover from a torn tendon sheath in his right index finger. He was activated Tuesday and has not pitched for the Jays since May 2.
Against Tampa Bay, Stroman breezed through six innings, despite having his session interrupted in the third inning when a lightning strike at a nearby sub-station took out a single bank of lights behind home plate at Tropicana Field. The foot-candle reduction was not noticeable, but the umpiring crew acceded to Rays manager Joe Maddon’s demand that play cease until power was restored. That took 30 minutes, after which Stroman completed a strikeout of Jose Molina with one pitch.
Stroman allowed two runs on seven hits.
Dioner Navarro and Edwin Encarnacion each hit two-run homers for the Jays, who have won four in a row and five of six. The win guaranteed the Jays a series win in Tampa for the first time since 2007.
During the past off-season, Gibbons and general manager Alex Anthopoulos repeatedly observed that a flourishing Morrow was a key to the team’s success in 2014.
After a strong season in 2012, he missed the final four months of last season with a compressed nerve in his forearm.
In 2012, he missed more than two months with an oblique strain, but still went 10-7 with a 2.96 ERA.