Which starting pitchers will the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles send to the mound for the do-or-die AL Wild Card Game?
When the dust settled on the MLB regular season, the Toronto Blue Jays ended up playing host to the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Wild Card Game. The two are very familiar with each other since they both play in the AL East, and just wrapped up a series against each other last week. All that needed to be settled was the pitching matchup.
Deciding who to send to the mound for the NL Wild Card Game was simple. The New York Mets clinched a playoff berth early, which let them save Noah Syndergaard for the playoffs. The San Francisco Giants, meanwhile, will counter with their ace Madison Bumgarner. After seeing what he did in the 2014 postseason, everyone’s excited to see him back on the mound in October.
The pitching wasn’t going to be as clear-cut in the AL Wild Card Game, though. The two obvious candidates for the Blue Jays, Aaron Sancehz and J.A. Happ, were called into action in their final series against the Boston Red Sox. By clinching a playoff spot on the final day of the season, the Jays didn’t make it easy on themselves.
But their starting rotation is one of the most balanced in the league, and even without those two available, they still had a good problem in choosing between Marcus Stroman and Francisco Liriano for the Wild Card Game. In the end, they went with Stroman, according to GM Ross Atkins:
Ross Atkins announces Marcus Stroman will start the Wild Card Game #BlueJays #Orioles
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) October 3, 2016
Liriano may be a veteran, and he may have better numbers than Stroman, but Atkins said this decision was based on Stroman’s pitching in last year’s postseason. In what was his first year in the playoffs, he had a 4.17 ERA in three starts, and came up big in Game 5 of the ALDS. Being with the Jays all season long was also a deciding factor.
Baltimore announced that they would counter with Chris Tillman:
It's official! Chris Tillman has been named your #Orioles starter for tomorrow's #WildCard game at Toronto. #Birdland pic.twitter.com/sYYZ1zWCkP
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) October 3, 2016
Even though the Orioles needed the last day to clinch a playoff spot as well, Tillman hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday – incidentally, that game was against the Blue Jays. He is without question the best starting pitcher on the team, having fashioned a 16-6 record and a 3.77 ERA.
The decision to go with Tillman wasn’t an obvious one, though. They could’ve gone with Ubaldo Jimenez, who has a 2.31 ERA in the month of September and shut the Blue Jays out last week. They also could’ve gone with Jovani Gallardo, who shut down the Jays as a member of the Texas Rangers in last year’s postseason. But his last start was three games ago.
Next: Best Starting Pitchers in MLB History
If the Orioles can get a lead heading into the ninth, the game is theirs to lose. Their closer Zach Britton is lights out, having converted 47 saves in 47 opportunities. Stroman, meanwhile, will have to pitch the game of his life if he wants to keep the Jays’ season alive.