Photo by Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.Nothing has been conventional for the Blue Jays as they trudge through a historically horrendous start to 2017. Tuesday, however, was a good day for Toronto, and a very, very weird one.The formula for winning is now much more clear for the 2015 AL East champs, who got off to their worst start in franchise history after back-to-back postseason appearances. Just start Russell Martin at third base for the first time in four years, have Chris Coghlan hurl over Yadier Molina to score a run on a play-of-the-year candidate, and put your star pitcher Marcus Stroman in position to become the first Blue Jays pitcher ever with a pinch hit. Pretty simple, right?
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All of those things happened on Tuesday against the Cardinals, believe it or not, and Stroman was in the middle of things as he often is. With Jason Grilli due up in the top of the 11th, John Gibbons sent Stroman, who threw a complete game victory just two days prior, to hit in Grilli's place. After knocking a double to left field for his first career hit, Stroman scored the go-ahead run on an Aledmys Diaz throwing error to lead Toronto to its sixth win of the year, and definitely the strangest in quite some time.
With the rotation thinned out as Aaron Sanchez and J.A. Happ sit on the 10-day DL, Stroman has done his part to hold the fragile rotation together through the early part of the season, earning two of the Blue Jays' six wins so far while posting a 3.10 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 29 innings of work.He's now rocking a team best 1.000 batting average and 3.000 OPS and has more extra-base hits than Coghlan, Darwin Barney, Steve Pearce, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, combined. What a weird season.