Page 20 - ARUBA TODAY

A20 SPORTS
Monday 1 april 2019
Castellanos lifts Tigers over Blue Jays 4-3 in 11 innings

Continued from Page 18 four before walking Ran- ner, Mercer said he knew
dal Grichuk on a 3-2 pitch Urena was trying to score
“It’s a really good feeling to begin the fifth. Moore when he heard the crowd
for the team,” Candelario lost his no-hit bid with one noise rise.
said. out in the sixth when Rich- “That’s when I knew I had
Candelario drove in two ard Urena grounded a sin- one chance to pick it up
runs and Daniel Stumpf (1- gle up the middle. Danny and throw it,” Mercer said.
0) pitched one inning for Jansen’s two-out double “I just picked it up, turned
the win. Toronto put a run- moved Urena to third, but and threw it. Luckily it was
ner at third with two outs in Moore escaped by fanning a good throw.”
the bottom of the 11th but Brandon Drury. Detroit, which had mus-
Shane Greene got Teoscar After doubling against tered two runs through its
Hernandez to line out for his Stumpf in the 10th, Urena first three games and none
second save. tried to score from sec- since the 10th inning on
Candelario came in 1 for ond on an infield single by opening day, snapped a
12 on the season and 0 for Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Richard Urena (7) is tagged out pinch-hitter Freddy Galvis. 24-inning scoreless drought
9 with seven strikeouts since at home plate by Detroit Tigers catcher Grayson Greiner (17) Mercer, who had dived to with a three-run seventh.
his lone base hit on open- during the tenth inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Sunday, his right to corral Galvis’ hit, Javy Guerra issued a bases-
ing day. He singled in the March 31, 2019. threw home from his knees loaded walk to Mercer be-
first, sixth, seventh and 11th, Associated Press in time to retire Urena and fore Candelario followed
and doubled in the ninth. Trailing 3-0 in the eighth, the out innings by Tigers starter send the game to the 11th. with a two-run single. Mak-
“He had a great day, a su- Blue Jays tied it against Joe Matt Moore. Making his De- “That was probably the ing his major league de-
per day,” Tigers manager Jimenez when pinch-hitter troit debut, the left-hander play of the game,” Greiner but, Blue Jays right-hander
Ron Gardenhire said. “Five Rowdy Tellez hit a three-run allowed two hits, walked said. “That was incredible.” Trent Thornton allowed two
hits in a ballgame is pretty homer to center field. one and struck out six. Scrambling after the loose hits in five shutout innings.
special.” The drive undid seven shut- Moore was perfect through ball, not looking at the run- Toronto starting pitchers
have worked 24 consecu-
tive scoreless innings to
begin the season, tripling
the previous club record.
It’s baseball’s longest such
streak since Atlanta starters
threw 25 shutout innings to
begin the 1994 season.
Thornton struck out eight,
the most by a Blue Jays
pitcher making his first big
league appearance.
The previous record was
seven, jointly held by Matt
Boyd and Marc Rzepczyn-
ski.
“I know Detroit is struggling
at the plate, but his stuff
(is) 94-95 (mph) with the
breaking pitches and ev-
erything,” Blue Jays man-
ager Charlie Montoyo said.
“He could’ve gotten any
team out.”
YOUNG GUN
Thornton wasn’t the only
Blue Jays pitcher to make
his debut. Right-hander El-
vis Luciano, who turned 19
in February, became the
youngest pitcher in team
history when he replaced
Guerra in the seventh. Lu-
ciano, selected from Kan-
sas City in the Rule 5 draft
at the winter meetings in
December, is the first big
league player born in this
century. He allowed one
hit in 1 1/3 innings.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,”
Luciano said through a
translator. “I was anxious
because I really wanted to
do the best I could for the
team.”q