Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman is 9-2 with a 2.48 earned-run average in 19 games at Rogers Centre – 15 of them starts.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
With his team trailing the Kansas City Royals 2-0 in the American League Championship Series, Marcus Stroman strolled into his Sunday news conference oozing the sort of confidence that one might expect to see from a playoff-chiselled veteran ace at the helm of a team cruising through the postseason.
The 24-year-old Toronto Blue Jays right-hander, experiencing his first major-league October, bounced into the room with his usual grin and slapped manager John Gibbons on the back. He then eased in behind the microphone and placed on the table, in clear view of the cameras, a hat bearing an acronym he has trademarked – HDMH.
"Stands for 'Height Doesn't Measure Heart'," said the 5-foot-8 Stroman, the day before getting just the third playoff start of his career Monday in Toronto. "You have a bunch of baseball analysts and all these people who preach 6-foot-4 for pitchers. I'm just here to show them that you don't have to be 6-foot-5 to go out there and be an awesome pitcher in the big leagues."
The cocky youngster was chomping gum and getting that familiar gleam in his eye when facing any question about adversity – ones about his recovery from an ACL injury, or about the team suffering two unpalatable defeats in Kansas City, Saturday's a 3-0 lead that morphed into a painful 6-3 loss.
The Jays' batters face Johnny Cueto on the mound Monday, one of the best arms in baseball, and every bit of tension one could weave into the storyline only seemed to further fuel Stroman's eagerness to turn this series on its ear.
"It's just something that I feel like I'm able to lock in more. The bigger the crowd, the bigger the moment," Stroman said. "I feel like pressure situations don't necessarily faze me. They excite me more, and they make me pitch better, and they bring out the best in me."
Stroman is 9-2 with a 2.48 earned-run average in 19 games at Rogers Centre – 15 of them starts – including his two games in the ALDS against the Texas Rangers, including the gripping Game 5 series-clincher.
"He's the perfect guy for it," Gibbons said. "He's got many years ahead of him, but what he's done and the type of games he's pitched in a short period of time, he's been about perfect. So I would expect him to keep that up."
Stroman's upbeat outlook was mirrored around him in the Jays clubhouse, despite the team having dug itself a deep hole versus the squad that had the best regular-season record in the AL. Less than 24 hours earlier, Jays second baseman Ryan Goins and Jose Bautista converged on a fly ball and let it fall between them while the Jays held a 3-0 lead in the seventh inning. The Royals then seized the momentum, went on a scoring tear and won.
Goins took the blame, said he felt awful and attested Sunday that teammates had approached him on the flight home to console him and say they had his back.
"One play is never going to be the defining moment of a game; although it might look like that in a lot of people's eyes, and there will be a lot of cameras in your face if you happen to be the guy who was involved in it," first basemen Chris Colabello said. "I know where his heart is and his effort level every day. He's a great defender, he's a great kid and he's a brother … Tip your hat to those guys for getting four straight hits after that and finding ways to score runs."
The Blue Jays, who left many runners stranded in recent days, are about to face Cueto, whose dominant mix of cutters, changeups and fastballs in Game 5 of the ALDS helped Kansas City eliminate the Houston Astros. The Jays recovered from going down 0-2 against Texas in the last round and say they believe they thrive when playing from behind.
"We don't get down. We might get down in the series, but you could never tell if you walked in our clubhouse," Stroman said. "We keep an upbeat, very positive nature, and we know we're capable of getting the job done."