Aaron Laffey cabbed across Miami last Thursday during a Toronto Blue Jays off day to visit with some friends from Allegany High School, who were in town with hopes of seeing him pitch over the weekend against the Miami Marlins.
Though they shared a great visit with their friend, the visitors from Cumberland would leave South Beach at the end of the weekend without seeing two things and, thankfully, one of them was a tropical storm (although flying over one was no day at South Beach). Neither would they see Laffey work out of the Toronto bullpen over the weekend, for he had been informed he would be making a start on Tuesday night in Boston’s Fenway Park, where he pitched masterfully in the 2007 ALCS as a member of the Cleveland Indians.
Perhaps his previous success there had something to do with the relaxed and confident manner the former Allegany Camper wore last Thursday afternoon. He is a ground-ball pitcher, and ground-ball pitchers are who you want pitching against the Red Sox in Fenway. More likely, though, his demeanor was the way it was because that’s the way Aaron Laffey’s demeanor always is when it comes to his pitching a baseball. And on Tuesday night, he again proved why, as he pitched six innings of near-unhittable baseball against the No. 2-ranked offense in the major leagues.
Placed on an 80-pitch limit, Laffey allowed three hits, struck out two and walked two in his first big league start since he pitched five solid innings for Cleveland in a 10-4 victory at Minnesota on July 19, 2010. He retired 12 straight batters after allowing a leadoff single to Mike Aviles in the first and worked his way out of a jam in the fifth. Thanks to a great throw to the plate by left fielder Rajai Davis, Laffey left after 82 pitches (48 for strikes) with a 1-0 lead.
“You always want to go back out, especially when you’re putting up zeros,” Laffey told the Associated Press. “Just make them take the ball out of your hand. You never want to give it up.”
Laffey provided a much-needed boost for a Blue Jays starting rotation that has been hit by injuries to right-handers Brandon Morrow, Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison. And on the same day Toronto signed 49-year-old left-hander Jamie Moyer to a minor league contract, the 27-year-old left-hander, with his six shutout innings, expressed rather convincingly his interest in filling any major league openings.
Unfortunately, the Toronto bullpen collapsed in the seventh and eighth, denying the Jays and Laffey a win. His performance, though, led the discussion after the game as he did not allow a runner to reach second until Adrian Gonzalez doubled to left to lead off the fifth.
“He did a great job out there,’’ Red Sox second baseball Dustin Pedroia told the Boston Globe. “He was locating his stuff, keeping the ball down. We really didn’t do anything. He was great for them.”
“Aaron pitched a heckuva six innings for us,” Jays manager John Farrell told the Toronto Sun. “Tonight was nearly three weeks since his last (minor league) start and we were looking at an 80-pitch limit for him. He gave us six outstanding innings.
“He had a very good recipe working. A lot of first-pitch strikes, established his fastball right from the get-go.”
“My four-seam fastball location was really good all night,” said Laffey, who posted a 4.52 ERA this season with Triple-A Las Vegas, where the ball flies out of the park. “So right off the bat, that was a strong point for me, so I kind of just stuck with that the whole night.
“I felt good — felt good warming up, felt good being back into a starting routine. Just wanted to go out and throw as many quality strikes as I could.”
Laffey made 47 relief appearances with the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees last season before making 11 starts in Las Vegas this year. He had worked nine major league innings in relief entering Tuesday, but again showed he’s right at home as a starter.
“All the confidence in the world,” Laffey told MLB.com. “Starting the year in Triple-A for me and having the opportunity to go there and start. I was able to go there and work on things that I had to do and just waiting for that opportunity to get into the rotation.
“Just coming up, helping the team out in the bullpen, I’ve always done whatever the team needed me to do but getting this opportunity is something I’ve been waiting for for a couple of years now.”
Laffey, who has carried the professional’s mindset since high school, without fail has done whatever his teams have wanted him to do, sometimes not to his advantage, such as filling three roles in the same season. On Tuesday night he pitched to a strong statement that he can help the Blue Jays in the most important role. Certainly he did everything he could do to help his team win and to ensure himself another start this weekend against the Angels.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Write to him at mburke@times-news.com
Mike Burke - Sports
Laffey gem shows what confidence is all about
- Mike Burke - Sports
-
-
Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
• Happy birthday, Brooks Robinson. No. 5 will be 76 tomorrow.
Remember, in the words of Gordon Beard, “Brooks Robinson never asked anybody to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore people name their children after him.” -
Rowley proof of experience breeding opportunity
When Bob Rowley learned of the fund-raising efforts to help provide Fort Hill football player Zac Elbin the opportunity to play in the Down Under Bowl this summer in Australia, it became a mere reflex for him to make a significant contribution on Elbin’s behalf. For while very few area high school football players have followed in his footsteps, Rowley, the former Fort Hill great from the late 1950s, had certainly walked in Elbin’s, having faced similar circumstances following his senior year in high school. And thanks to the support of the community, Rowley says he was able to realize an opportunity of a lifetime.
-
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown
Defending champion Burke’s Mom filled out her March Madness bracket the other day, which, I assure you, took longer for her to do than it did to give birth, toiling with pencil in hand to beat Thursday’s noon deadline.
-
They come as guests, and leave as family
They’ve come from as far west as Utah, as far north as Canada and as far south as Texas. Yet for every third week of March and forevermore, the players, coaches and teams that experience the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament are from here.
-
Young and making you restless
You’ll forgive Maryland basketball coach Mark Turgeon if he’s feeling like Pop Fisher these days — New York Knights manager Pop Fisher before Roy Hobbs showed up, that is.
Let’s forget for just a sliver of a moment that there is no serviceable point guard on the Terrapin roster — there is no leader on this team of any kind. To wit, the Terps are 2-6 on the road this season; 1-6 in the ACC, which means they lose road games ... in EMPTY GYMS! They’re losing games to teams that aren’t good enough to warrant their own fans getting out to see them play. -
Racecar is still racecar spelled backwardzzzz
I am so excited about today’s Daytona 500. Not.
Can’t wait to see Dale Jr., Danica and the rest of the gang back on the track. Not. -
Mike should stop being like Mike
The month of February, proof that God enjoys a little sarcasm as much as anybody (that’s why it’s only 28 days), is more than half over. Hockey is again in full swing, March Madness approaches, the NBA playoff picture is beginning to take shape, and baseball is back, as images of spring training splash beautifully across the sports pages of America.
-
Preachers in glass pulpits ...
The Big Ten has agreed to no longer schedule Football Championship Subdivision opponents (prior to 2006, known as NCAA Division I-AA opponents) during non-conference play.
-
Redmon eager for shot at WVU
Bishop Walsh tight end Quincy Redmon signed a commitment to play football as a preferred non-scholarship student-athlete at West Virginia University Wednesday at Bishop Walsh School. A 6-4, 220-pound senior, Redmon is a two-time first-team Times-News All-Area selection, as a tight end his junior year and a linebacker his senior year. West Virginia is interested in him as a tight end.
-
The charm has returned to the city
Baltimore had its party yesterday and, from the looks of things, it was a good one, with approximately 80,000 fans filed into M&T Bank Stadium and an estimated 120,000 more lining the streets for the Super Bowl champion Ravens.
- More Mike Burke - Sports Headlines
-
Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
