TORONTO — Coach Marcus Stroman’s public displeasure with head coach Gleyber Torres on Friday night could have lingering effects.
Instead, early in the next inning, Stroman emerged from the dugout to greet Torres, whose two-run homer gave the Yankees a 16-5 victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, with no outs and the bases loaded, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit Stroman’s hit high and hard to shortstop.
Anthony Volpe had to wait for a hop and got the out at second base before Torres’ throw to first base came too late and caught Guerrero for a double play.
Stroman was upset on the mound, and television cameras showed him yelling into his glove.
He then walked Justin Turner on four pitches to end his day, and returned to the dugout, where he was met with more yelling as he paced.
“It was frustrating,” said Stroman, who was upset about the speed of the double play. “I felt like I made a good pitch at the end of the day and it was a big moment. I wanted to get to bat there and I wasn’t able to and so some raw emotions came out.”
Stroman said he spoke with Torres afterward to clear up the misunderstanding, and was in the top row of the dugout when Torres hit the home run in the top of the sixth inning.
“When you’re trying to try and help your team and pitch well, your emotions come out,” Torres said. “I don’t have any issues with it. I know how tough the game is, so it’s part of the game.”
Coach Aaron Boone, who spoke with Stroman after the game, also said he had no problem letting his emotions show.
“[Torres] “We didn’t score much on the throws, but those things happen,” Boone said. “It’s going to be hard to get a double play. Stro just showed his competitive spirit in that moment. We play for a lot of things, and sometimes that spills over a little bit.”
The fiery Stroman gave up just three runs in 4 1/3 innings, but Torres and other pitchers got him out of trouble in the top of the sixth.
“There’s definitely a lot of raw emotions that can come out in this game,” Stroman said. “I’m very passionate. I care very much about winning for this team, for this city. There’s going to be some raw emotions coming out, so after the game I reached out to everybody that I needed to reach out to. It’s all about winning and playing well. It’s going to get frustrating at times.”
Clark Schmidt’s shutdown is complete.
Schmidt had been diagnosed with a torn latissimus dorsi muscle a few days after pitching, about four weeks after his last game, but was scheduled to start playing catch again on Monday and pitch again on Friday.
The right-hander is expected to need at least four weeks to recover and, if all goes well, could return sometime in August.
Giancarlo Stanton (hamstring) also started working out, getting on the treadmill on Thursday.
“There’s not a lot, but it’s moving now,” Boone said.
Ben Rice played his first game as a catcher as a major leaguer, entering the game as catcher in the bottom of the ninth inning.
As tough times continue for the Yankees, Phil Bickford unintentionally provided some laughs Thursday night.
With the Yankees down 9-2 in the fifth inning, Boone walked to the mound, but Carlos Rodon managed to convince him to stay in the game and finish the inning.
But Bickford thought he was coming in, so he started running out of the bullpen, but when he got about halfway to right field he turned around and ran back to the bullpen.
Boone didn’t see it until after the game, but he got a laugh out of it.
“clearly [Thursday] “It wasn’t a great night for us, but it was kind of fun watching the video of him realizing it and kind of panicking and sprinting to the bullpen,” Boone said with a smile. “That was kind of fun.”
Fortunately for Rodon after the inning, it took Bickford long to get onto the field, so the umpires didn’t force the Yankees to make a pitching change.
“I’m happy with the fact that he wants to go in there and let’s go,” Boone said. “To be fair, I told him to get ready for the next hitter.”
