Trent Thornton had to make his MLB debut while carrying a scoreless streak inherited from the three starters that preceded him and he would go on to pitch an absolute gem. (ArdenZwelling)
Thornton did. And Sunday, with dad, Jeff, and mom, Patty, in attendance at Rogers Centre, he walked out of the Blue Jays dugout, hopped over the third base line, and took the mound to throw his first big-league pitch. A little more than an hour later, he was walking back to that dugout after five scoreless frames, beginning his major-league career with an absolute gem, long before the Blue Jays went on to lose, 4-3, in 11 innings.
Marcus Stroman, Matt Shoemaker, and Aaron Sanchez combined for a franchise-record 19 shutout innings against the Tigers over Toronto’s first three games, handing Thornton the baton for Sunday’s matinee. That’s some pressure for a 25-year-old rookie. But if you ask Richard, who’s in his 11th MLB season, he’ll tell you that stress was going to exist regardless.
So, of course Thornton got jobbed on his first pitch of the afternoon, throwing a strike that was called a ball. And of course he got BABIP’ed on his next one, as Thornton broke Jeimer Candelario’s bat with a heater in on the hands, only to watch the ball flare up and over the infield’s left side, falling into no-man’s land with an exit velocity of 55.9-m.p.h.
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