It certainly did not take long but it appears as though the Toronto Blue Jays have already come to terms with the fact the dynamic duo of Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna are their two best bullpen options. While it may still be early, it has become abundantly clear who John Gibbons trusts most when it comes to closing out ball games.
After watching Aaron Loup and Brett Cecil implode on Wednesday evening and ultimately cost Toronto a ball game they had no business losing, the Blue Jays skipper wasted little time in announcing he had already removed the tag of “closer” from the latter’s early season job description. An interesting decision for sure and one that likely did not go unnoticed inside the clubhouse.
While both Drew Huthison and R.A. Dickey delivered solid efforts in their first starts of 2015, no one really knew what to expect from Daniel Norris in the second start of his career in Thursday’s series finale. Not surprisingly the young lefty came through with a very nice effort of his own, going five and two thirds on what was an extremely ugly night in New York.
Despite pitching well, the twenty-one year old departed with a runner on base and the Yankees charging, following solo shots off the bats of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira. Instead of turning to one of his veteran arms in the pen, Gibbons handed the ball to Osuna with the game in the balance and the youngster delivered.
Even after coughing up a double to John Ryan Murphy upon entering the game, the twenty year old proceeded to keep calm and strikeout Stephen Drew on a nasty four-seam fastball to end the threat. He took it a step further in the seventh, striking out Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran on seven pitches before turning it over to Cecil to start the eighth…with a clean slate.
Give the twenty-eight year old credit, he bounced back nicely after a tough outing on Wednesday and with the pressure of the situation not being nearly as high, Cecil was able to get the job done before handing over the ball to Castro to close it out in the ninth, in what was his third consecutive appearance to start the year.
In what was his first save opportunity at the big league level, the lanky right-hander needed all of fifteen pitches to retire New York in order and did so by almost exclusively throwing fastballs. Outside of showing shortstop Didi Gregorius a slider midway through his at-bat, it was a steady diet of two and four seam fastballs and all three Yankee hitters looked completely overmatched.
Again, it may be early but it is frankly next to impossible to not be impressed with what we have seen out of both Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna throughout Spring Training and the opening series of 2015. While there is certainly still a ton baseball to be played, these two kids have the makings of possibly turning into something pretty special and the Toronto Blue Jays are banking on their abilities to continue to exceed expectations and help keep this club in post-season contention from start to finish.