With each passing game, Marcus Stroman shows something new, something different, a lesson learned. The young righthander is proving to be a quick study and a competitor right to his core.

On Saturday, he cruised through the first three innings, never in trouble. Then, to start the fourth, Daniel Robertson singled to lead off, followed immediately by another base hit by Adrian Beltre. With runners at first and second, Stroman seemed to hit the re-set button.

“That was a pretty important part of the game. I felt like I was able to really bear down and get outs when I needed them. I knew I needed to get either a double play ball or a couple of big strikeouts and I was lucky to get the strikeouts.

He struck out Jake Smolinski and then Leonys Martin and then got a groundball off the bat of J.P. Arencibia to end the threat. Those three consecutive outs led to nine more in a row that got Stroman through the seventh inning without surrendering.

The fourth-inning escape set him up for the rest of the game.

“That pumped me up going into the next inning. To get out of it with no damage and keep your team in the game was huge and definitely a momentum shift.

“You have to raise your intensity. You can’t be as relaxed. I feel like I’m able to get into a zone when I need to and focus and make big pitches in crucial counts. That was one of those moments. It was big for the team to get us going.”

Deadline Jitters

With the trade deadline hovering not far away, the Blue Jays, much like the players in other clubhouses, can’t help but be a bit preoccupied with the prospect of change. Some of the veterans are not just hoping, but expecting management and, ultimately, ownership to step up to the plate and demonstrate their will to win by making a bold move.

Others are worried about being traded themselves or, worse, sent back to the minors when change comes.

“Every year as long as I’ve been around this place, you get to this time of the year as you close in on the deadline and there are moves to be made, guys are always wondering what’s going to happen,” said manager John Gibbons. “‘Do we need this or need that?’ That’s just a part of it. Some guys are wondering, ‘Am I out of here?’ But they have to understand that this is our team right now. You can’t always make something happen. Sometimes nothing happens. If you get caught up in that, you’re in trouble anyway. Every year you get some of that.”

Colby vs. Colby

So, let’s get this straight. Colby Lewis figures it’s against some kind of unwritten code for Colby Rasmus to bunt with two outs when his team has an, ahem, insurmountable lead of two runs? Really?

This happened in the Blue Jay fifth inning, Toronto up 2-0 and tons of baseball yet to play. After two quick outs, Rasmus laid down a bunt against a shift and easily beat it out, with a home-run threat in Dan Johnson hitting behind him. Johnson struck out. Rasmus and Lewis exchanged a bit of name-calling between the pitchers mound and first base.

“You’ve got a situation where there’s two outs, you’re up by two runs, he had gotten a hit earlier in the game off me, we’re playing the shift and he laid down a bunt basically for average, and he didn’t steal within the first two pitches to put himself in scoring position,” said an indignant Lewis after the game. “That, to me, tells me he’s solely looking out for himself and looking out for batting average and I didn’t appreciate it.”

In what world does this guy exist? Guess it must be one where there is no such thing as a two-out rally. When you’re scuffling as the Blue Jays have been, the name of the game is baserunners, whenever and however you can get them. Five, six, seven runs up, Lewis might have a point but not in a two-run game.

Margin For Error

On Friday, Gibbons was talking about how small the margin for error is on his team right now. Every little mistake can be magnified when the team is not scoring runs.

We present two cases in point from Saturday’s game.

Case 1: Bottom of the sixth, one out, Anthony Gose was on first base with Jose Reyes at the plate. Gose took his lead, then started to retreat to the bag when lefty reliever Ryan Feierabend made a move toward first. But instead of going right back to the bag, Gose stopped about three feet short. After a hesitation, Feierabend threw to first and Gose, frozen in his tracks, was tagged out, even though he appeared to be looking at the pitcher throughout the sequence. A moment later, Reyes doubled into the right-centre gap. Gose, with his speed, could easily have scored, but he was on the bench, contemplating his sins.

Case 2: Top of the eighth, runners at first and second for the Rangers. Beltre at bat, Dustin McGowan on the mound. Full count. McGowan threw a 97 mph heater, high and away. Beltre swung and missed for strike three but catcher Dioner Navarro had the ball glance off his glove. It went to the screen and Beltre ewas safe at first. McGowan then struck out Jake Smolinski — the fourth strikeout of the half-inning for the Blue jay relief corps — to end it.

Neither misplay cost the Jays the win, but either could have.