Two weeks ago, Marcus Stroman still hadn't thrown a major league pitch this season, yet Alex Anthopoulos already had him in the playoff rotation.
The Toronto Blue Jays general manager is a smart man.
"If he performs the way he did last year, it's a no-brainer," Anthopoulos said the night of September 9 on Toronto's Sportsnet 590 The Fan. "It's not even a debate."
Well, guess what—Stroman is performing the way he did last year, or maybe even better than that. It was bad news for the New York Yankees in Wednesday night's key game in the American League East, and it's bad news for the rest of the AL playoff teams and perhaps whoever makes it to the World Series out of the National League.
We've spent the whole season thinking of the Blue Jays as simply an offensive powerhouse, and we've debated what that will mean in October. But with David Price atop their rotation and Stroman right behind him, the Jays have the kind of one-two rotation punch that plays in the playoffs.
It sure did play this week against the Yankees, when Price won Monday's game with seven scoreless innings and Stroman matched him with seven scoreless in Wednesday's 4-0 Toronto win.
"It was really the perfect game for him," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said in his postgame press conference. "It was a big game, and he came through."
It was a big game, one that made the difference between the Blue Jays holding a 1.5- or 3.5-game lead with just 11 days remaining on the schedule. Stroman came through, and he did it with a flair that left you believing the big stage doesn't bother him.
Why would it?
He fought hard to come back quickly, after the spring training knee injury that was supposed to cost him the entire season. He took time to go back to school at Duke, but he was determined to return if he could, just to pitch in games like this—and the even bigger games that lie ahead.
The Blue Jays went from thinking he wouldn't pitch at all to thinking he might help out of the bullpen to starting him in both huge series they played against the Yankees this month. Stroman beat the Yankees on September 12 at Yankee Stadium, and he did it again Wednesday. In between, he allowed one run in seven innings in a win over the Boston Red Sox.
He's 3-0. He has a 1.89 ERA. He's a difference-maker.
Remember, Stroman was supposed to be the Blue Jays' Opening Day starter this season, off his fine rookie season in 2014. He impressed the Blue Jays by the way he pitched down the stretch, with a 2.56 ERA over his final six appearances.
That was good, but what Stroman is doing this month is even better.
He went out Wednesday and took control right from the start, and didn't flinch even as the game stayed scoreless through five innings.
The Blue Jays began the week with fewer wins in games when they score four runs or fewer than any team in baseball. Yes, that's partly because they have fewer of those games than any other team, but until this week they were 13-51 in those games.
Then, in the biggest series of the season, the Blue Jays scored four runs in each game. They won two of the three and took the third game to extra innings.
The Blue Jays still have other concerns. They're not sure how soon Troy Tulowitzki will be able to play. Their bullpen has three blown saves this month.
But their rotation now looks like it could be a strength going into October, rather than a big question mark. Marco Estrada, who has pitched well all year, looked good again Tuesday against the Yankees. R.A. Dickey has a 2.95 ERA over his last 14 starts. Mark Buehrle has pitched well three times in his last four starts.
Price is 8-1 with a 1.95 ERA since coming over from the Detroit Tigers. Three of those wins came head-to-head against the Yankees, and he would have had four wins over New York if not for Carlos Beltran's August 14 home run off Aaron Sanchez. Between them, Price and Stroman have faced the Yankees six times, and the Blue Jays have gone 5-1.
Given that the Blue Jays lead the East by 3.5 games, you could say those six games decided the division. Barring a collapse, the Jays can plan on opening the Division Series on October 8.
They can plan on Price pitching that game. They can plan on Stroman pitching in that series, just as Alex Anthopoulos predicted he would.
And they can go in with the knowledge they have a top of the rotation built for October.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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