Jays' Lawrence makes first MLB start vs. Angels
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It's been a long and winding road for Casey Lawrence, but one that will take him to the mound at Angel Stadium on Saturday night for his first career major league start.
Lawrence will make the start for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Los Angeles Angels at the age of 29 after spending eight seasons in the minors, as well as three seasons of winter ball in Venezuela playing for the Bravos de Margarita.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, however, is hoping that Lawrence will be free of any significant jitters, considering he has already made two appearances for the Blue Jays this season out of the bullpen.
In his major league debut, he entered a tie game against Tampa Bay in the bottom of the 11th. He gave up a leadoff double to Mallex Smith, who was sacrificed to third. After two intentional walks to load the bases, Lawrence struck out Evan Longoria.
Lawrence, however, then walked Brad Miller to force home a run, ending the game in a Blue Jays loss.
His debut ultimately didn't turn out great for him and the team, but Gibbons said he saw some good things out of the right-hander.
"Overall I actually thought he looked pretty good," Gibbons told sportsnet.ca. "He looked confident doing what he does. A lot of times you see those guys, first time opportunity and they're too juiced up and they come out there and overthrow balls up. For the most part, I thought his pitches were doing what they do. He looked like he belonged."
At 4-12, the Blue Jays are off to a slow start and because of injuries to starters J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez, needed to call up reinforcements. Mat Latos was called up to start Friday's game before Lawrence got the call for Saturday, becoming the Blue Jays' seventh different starter this season. They used only seven starters in all of last season.
Lawrence is matched up against the Angels' 25-year-old left-hander Tyler Skaggs, who is coming off his best start of the season. Skaggs shut out Kansas City on four hits over seven innings while striking out nine. The Angels lost the game 1-0 and Skaggs is still without a win this season.
Skaggs is a big part of the Angels' future plans, but staying healthy will be vital. He missed all of 2015 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and was plagued by shoulder fatigue in spring training this year.
The Angels actually drafted Skaggs in 2009 and traded him to the Diamondbacks, before re-acquiring him in a three-way trade with the Diamondbacks and White Sox that cost the Angels slugger Mark Trumbo.
Skaggs had his ups and downs last season, going 3-4 with a 4.17 ERA in 10 starts. He said he believes he will be better going forward because last season he was so focused on his physical well-being and not as much on the mental aspects of the game.
"Physically, I was ready to go," Skaggs told the Orange County Register this spring. "But mentally I let that go by the wayside. I was so focused on getting stronger and throwing hard and being healthy, the mental aspect of the game, I just wasn't ready for it. I was still thinking about mechanics."