TORONTO — Easton Lucas pitched as a starter during his college days at Pepperdine and the Miami Marlins initially placed him in the rotation at rookie ball after selecting him in the 14th round of the 2019 draft. Then the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor-league season, stalling his progress, he found himself in the bullpen once the game’s lower levels resumed in 2021 and was essentially a relief arm until the Toronto Blue Jays claimed him off waivers from the Detroit Tigers last Aug. 19 and inserted him into the rotation at triple-A Buffalo.
Eventually, Lucas got into two late September games as a reliever for the Blue Jays, who knew he had interest in starting again and were intrigued enough by his profile to offer him some opportunity.
“Obviously I’d like to do whatever I can to pitch in the big-leagues,” he said last September. “I do enjoy starting and facing guys multiple times, the strategic part of the pitching game. As a reliever, you come in and are just trying to overwhelm guys with your best stuff. That’s fun, too. But I do enjoy the strategic side.”
One spring camp and a Max Scherzer thumb injury later, that unlikely path led him to his first big-league start Wednesday afternoon, when he allowed only one hit and two walks over five impressive shutout innings during a 4-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Primarily riding a fastball that sat 93.1 m.p.h. and was located effectively, Lucas gave the Blue Jays more than they could have expected in the first vacant outing during Scherzer’s injured-list stint, allowing them to complete a 5-2 homestand with a three-game sweep.
The 28-year-old mixed in a newly refined changeup that led to two whiffs and three outs against right-handed hitters, along with a new sweeper that produced three outs against left-handed hitters before a paid attendance of 20,104.
While the matchup against the Nationals was a good one for Lucas — Kevin Gausman was pushed back from Wednesday to Friday to bring the open rotation spot forward — the performance mattered for a Blue Jays team without clear answers to cover for Scherzer.
Manager John Schneider said they were “going to kind of see how it goes” when deciding what to do when this turn next comes up Tuesday in Boston and again Sunday in Baltimore, and suddenly they have plenty more to consider, in a good way.
“In an ideal world, it’s probably a combination of Yariel (Rodriguez) and Lucas,” added Schneider. “I like Yariel in the bullpen and I like having that availability and not just saying, OK, you’re going to pitch out of the bullpen for length every fifth day. You have to kind of thread the needle, if you will. But I think going forward, trying to just keep the length with Yariel if needed for two or three innings would be ideal after someone that’s starting.”
The Blue Jays don’t have many clear options beyond that duo at that moment, with Eric Lauer and Jake Bloss, hit hard in his season opener at Buffalo on Tuesday, the leading candidates.
Rodriguez, used in leverage both Sunday against Baltimore and Tuesday versus Washington, gives Schneider another arm to bridge to Yimi Garcia and closer Jeff Hoffman, who allowed Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI double before locking down Wednesday’s victory.
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Hoffman collected three saves during the homestand as the Blue Jays continue to score enough to pull out games, but not enough for low-leverage endings.
Andres Gimenez and George Springer continued their torrid starts, the former lacing an RBI single in the first to open the scoring, and the latter ripping his first home run of the season, a solo shot that made it 2-0 in the fourth. Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 3-0 and after CJ Abrams’ solo shot in the top of the sixth off Brendon Little, a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fielder’s choice in the bottom half made it 4-1.
That depth of attack has been essential with Guerrero, who doubled and scored in the fifth, and Santander, who had two hits, off to slower starts.
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