ARLINGTON, Texas — A season that has already been pretty special for Ross Stripling hit another high point in Texas on Friday night.
First and foremost, he continued to be that dependable every fifth day guy who comes in, does his job and gives his team a chance to win.
It was Stripling’s 15th consecutive start since he took over from Hyun Jin Ryu in the Jays rotation and his fifth consecutive quality start as he went six innings allowing just two earned runs.
Stripling wasn’t around to the earn the decision in the Jays 4-3 win Friday, but he more than did his part getting the Jays through six with the lead and ensuring the bullpen wouldn’t be overly taxed with a bullpen start pending Sunday.
But what made this start so special in particular was the setting and what it made possible for the Texas A&M product with family scattered all over the state, was the ability to do it in front of family and friends.
Stripling had his own personal cheering section of 76 family members and friends on hand most of whom had not seen him pitch since the world changed with the arrival of COVID.
On hand were Stripling’s mom and dad, his wife Shelby and 18-month-old son Jackson along with 72 other relatives or friends all there to see Stripling do his thing.
It had been five weeks since he’d seen his wife and child.
It was a big moment and Stripling managed to have all the ticket requests handled and arranged by Wednesday giving him the off-day Thursday to spend with his wife and son.
Then he went out and blocked out all the added distractions that come with hosting so many people and pitched yet another gem.
Stripling hasn’t had a lot of practice dealing with similar situations thanks to COVID. The Dodgers, his previous team to the Jays were only in Texas periodically with the interleague schedule and their most recent visit in 2020 came without fans in the stands.
But in 2017 with the Dodgers taking on the Houston Astros in the World Series, Stripling got his first real taste of playing at home (or at least near home) and the demands that entails.
“Those games were insane,” Stripling said. “I ended up basically having to turn my phone off, I was getting so many ticket requests leading up to those games.”
In hindsight, Stripling concedes, it turned out to be good practice for this weekend.
But as mentioned the appreciation and love from his family was just the topper on what has already been a banner season.
Stripling has gone from swing man out of the bullpen to starting rotation and, in the eyes of many, Blue Jays saviour as he has helped them overcome the loss of 2/5 of the rotation if you including Yusei Kikuchi, now pitching in relief along with Ryu.
Stripling is a start away from matching the most he has ever made in a season (22 in 2018 with the Dodgers) and his ERA of 3.03 trails only that 2018 season when he finished up with a career best 3.02 ERA. His next win will also match his career high in that category of eight also set in 2018.
Stripling gives a lot of credit for his current success to the fine-tuning he did on his change-up over the past two off-seasons.
“Just from talking to our pitching coaches and even my agency has an analytical side where they both presented me these things where it said more change-ups and more to righties,” Stripling said.
So, he went to work on it and actually benefitted from the delayed start to the season taking an already season-ready arm back to Houston with him where he put in even more work on that particular pitch.
“I was able to start throwing live batting practice and even bigger bullpens where I could have guys stand in and I just threw the (crap) out of that change-up over and over again,” he said. “I got guys’ opinions on it too. What was cool was (guys like Alex) Bregman and … all sorts of big leaguers were at Rice where I could pick their brains which I know is maybe not always the best but they gave honest feedback which I appreciated.”
The addition of a trusted change-up to his repertoire has made a huge difference.
“I think the biggest thing is I found a grip that spins like my fastball,” he said. “It may not have the nastiest movement. It may not be that sexy on the analytics – I don’t even know what it’s vertical and horizontal is – but it spins exactly like my fastball so it’s deceptive, plus my arm angle is wacky.
“It has been an equalizer because righties have to start respecting the inside part of the plate where before they could just look out over because I was definitely fastball, slider, curveball away,” Stripling said. “Now this is something that is more on that side and I’ve even started throwing some sinkers so yeah, just opening up the plate to righties.”
Stripling couldn’t ask for better timing either with opportunity and execution falling so nicely into place.
He hits the free agent market this off-season and will be an enticing option for teams in the hunt for starting pitching including, presumably, the Blue Jays.
“What helps is the Blue Jays are in a massive playoff hunt so that takes the bulk of the attention,” he said. “I’m one of the five starters so I’m trying to do my job every time out and so I’m definitely narrow focused on that.”
mganter@postmedia.com
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