TORONTO – Away from the prying eyes of the New York Yankees he’ll be facing opening day April 1, Hyun-Jin Ryu quietly threw 77 pitches over five innings of a simulated game Sunday, allowing three hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
Typical Ryu, according to manager Charlie Montoyo.
The ace left-hander will, presumably, make his final start of the spring on normal rest Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, and then get an extra day before taking the Yankee Stadium mound to start the season.
What the Toronto Blue Jays intend to do behind him remains a more interesting question, one Tanner Roark didn’t help clarify during a messy, sorta-three-inning stint in Sunday’s 8-3 thumping from the New York Yankees.
Out-of-sorts with his fastball early, Roark couldn’t escape a four-run first, prompting Montoyo to pull him after 27 pitches. But before the veteran right-hander left the mound, the manager warned him to not stray too far, since he’d re-enter the game in the second inning under this spring’s modified rules.
Roark settled in a better second, retiring the side after a leadoff double to Tyler Wade, and then surrendered a hard-luck, three-spot in the third. He appeared to be out of the inning on Kyle Higashioka’s popper to shallow left-centre, but a swirling wind blew it away from Cavan Biggio for a cheap hit, and Thairo Estrada homered on a fastball two pitches later.
Wade then struck out to end the frame – one of five strikeouts in a weird outing that included nine whiffs, the same as Yankees ace Gerrit Cole – as well as the afternoon for Roark, grateful for the temporary re-entry rule he’d like to see become permanent.
“For sure,” he said. “These games, they matter but they don’t count towards our record. Say Cole goes out there and gives up four and he throws 30 pitches – does that mean he’s done? It makes sense that if you had a bad first inning, now you get someone to come in – which in hindsight it helps them come into the game and get ready, who knows – and also I can go back out there and get my pitches in, get my work in.”
Certainly a sound argument, but more pertinent for the moment is what to make of that work?
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Seeking to rebound from a rough 2020, Roark hit the gym hard and tweaked his mechanics. over the winter, looking to generate more drive from his backside by hinging more on his right hip. He’d had mostly good results through his first three spring starts before hitting a bump in the final inning of his previous outing, and then struggling with his fastball out of the gate Sunday.
Aaron Judge tagged one heater for a single in the first before Luke Voit doubled him home with 109.3 m.p.h. rocket off another four-seamer. Clint Frazier tore into a slider at 104.5 m.p.h. off the bat for a two-run double and Derek Dietrich then poked a changeup over a drawn-in infield to bring out Montoyo with the temporary hook.
“It’s a spring training game,” Montoyo said when asked what to make of the results. “It looked like his timing was off in that first inning. That’s one of the good rules in spring training, you can re-enter somebody, which worked out great because he had time to think about what he was doing, and when he went back in he was better.”
If they choose, the Blue Jays could have Roark start against the Yankees next Saturday. Or they could have Ross Stripling – who gets the ball Monday evening versus the Tigers – take the ball. They also have a decision to make Wednesday in deciding whether to keep Robbie Ray on turn and give the Yankees a look at him that day, or once again throw him on a backfield.
Given how they’ve avoided using projected starters against the Yankees all spring, Ray seems likely to throw a simulated game like Ryu. As it relates to his team seeing Cole, Montoyo acknowledged “any time you can face someone in your division, that’s always good for hitters.”
The Blue Jays won’t want to give the Yankees any help, so that Roark faced them at all suggests he won’t be used to break up lefties Ryu, Ray and Steven Matz against a righty-heavy lineup during the season’s opening series. Maybe Stripling does that, or maybe they ride their lefties against the Yankees since they’ve had the strongest springs, platoon splits be damned.
“We have a pretty good idea how we’re going to set it up,” said Montoyo. “But we want to see what’s going on in the next week and a half we’ve got left.”
With only eight Grapefuit League games remaining, crunch time is coming.
DIFFERENT LINEUP LOOK: Marcus Semien took Gerrit Cole deep in the fifth inning for his second homer of the spring on a day Charlie Montoyo messed around a bit with his batting order.
Semien has largely hit between George Springer and Bo Bichette in the two-hole so far, but he was sixth against the Yankees with Cavan Biggio up in the two-spot. The switch from a traditional table-setting spot to more of a production position didn’t really alter his approach, as Semien says that more “depends on the pitcher you’re facing.”
“It’s important for me to have a game plan against who we’re facing and keep that approach throughout the entire game. If something’s off in that first at-bat, then you make your adjustment,” he explained. “In terms of where you’re hitting in the lineup, I don’t think it matters as much to me. There may be times where we hit-and-run a little bit more if I’m at the top of the lineup, or something like that. But hitting is hard enough, so you just need to be able to see where your timing is at and try to barrel something up.”
The best way to leverage Biggio makes for an interesting debate.
His elite plate discipline and on-base skills make him a natural top-of-the-lineup fit, but George Springer is destined to bat leadoff, just as he did in Houston. Semien is another elite hitter which makes him a natural in the two-spot, but Biggio can frustrate opposing pitchers by running up pitch counts early with his patience.
The Blue Jays are likely to rely on matchups and probably be a work in progress in terms of optimal lineup construction. As for his process, Semien feels he’s rounding into form at the plate, even though he doesn’t believe in being a finished product by opening day.
“Timing has always been a big one for me, making sure you’re on time with your mechanics,” he said. “We work on our swing every day, our swing path, but once you get in that game, the timing is just not the same as the cage work or BP. That’s why these at-bats here in the last week or so will be important.”
MERRYWEATHER BACK IN ACTION: Julian Merryweather, slowed by a back issue, returned to action Sunday with two innings work behind Ryu in the simulated game.
The power-armed right-hander allowed two hits and struck out a pair during the 34-pitch stint and depending on how he recovers, he may still have enough time to get be ready for the season’s start.
