Blue Jays' Marcus Stroman: Sparkles in WBC opener

Stroman twirled 4.2 scoreless innings, scattering three hits while issuing no walks and striking out four against the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic on Saturday night.

Analysis:

Employing a lively mix consisting mostly of fastballs, sliders and changeups, Stroman did what he does best to keep the powerful Dominican bats at bay: keep the ball on the ground. The righty led MLB starters in 2016 with a 60 percent ground-ball rate while forcing 49 percent of opposing hitters to "top" batted balls, according to Statcast, the second-best rate in baseball last year. Simply put, Stroman is as good as any pitcher in the world at getting hitters to pound pitches into the dirt, and he showed it Saturday by collecting seven groundouts without allowing a single flyball in fair territory. Stroman threw 64 pitches, one below the first-round maximum and (by tournament rules) will not be eligible to pitch for four days. If Team USA reaches the second round at San Diego's Petco Park, the young gun will be available to start again.