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Ray day coming as former Blue Jays starter faces his former teammates

Ray day coming as former Blue Jays starter faces his former teammates

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SEATTLE — Alek Manoah may be a big dude — one of the larger, more imposing starters in baseball — but to former teammate Robbie Ray, he was like a little baseball brother.

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The teammates from 2021 will be opponents on the mound here Saturday night at T-Mobile Park when former Blue Jays starter and reigning AL Cy Young award winner Ray faces current Toronto ace Manoah.

“I felt like he was an outstanding pitcher and he was just learning on the fly how to be a big-leaguer,” Ray said in an interview prior to Thursday’s first of four games against his former team. “So I just tried to be that older brother figure to him and take him under my wing and just show him what it’s like in the big leagues.”

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Manoah has talked often about being a sponge and how much he’s learned from veterans such as Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu and this season, Kevin Gausman. And when one of those guys is having a Cy Young season, it’s hard not to benefit.

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Ray was a busy man on Thursday, re-connecting with pitching coach Pete Walker and several of the Jays staff and players. It was the first opportunity to do so as he didn’t meet Canadian vaccination regulations and didn’t make it to Toronto with the M’s earlier in the season.

As for that one full campaign with the Jays — a career season that made him a very rich man — Ray says he has nothing but positives to take from it.

“It showed me what I’m capable of doing,” said Ray, who had a 13-7 record and career-best 2.84 ERA in his 32 starts with the Jays. “I was able to make adjustments in game, which is something I wasn’t able to do earlier in my career.

“After the year I had, that’s what I’ve taken way. I just feel that now I’m able to compete in every single game I’m in.

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After an uneven start to his 2022 season, Ray feels he’s finding his form now and settling in with his new team. His numbers aren’t quite there yet, with a 7-6 record in 17 starts with an ERA of 3.62.

“It’s going to be fun,” Ray said of facing his former team. “I stay in contact with pretty much everyone on the team, and I’m excited to see the games.”

YUSEI KIKUCHI, JAYS SAY IL

Befelled by a mystery injury assignment you could see from the other side of Puget Sound, the Jays placed struggling starter Yusei Kikuchi on the 15-day injury list with a neck strain prior to Thursday’s game.

(Insert Kikuchi-related performance joke here.)

While it’s entirely possible that the Japanese lefty is feeling some discomfort, the biggest blow is to his confidence after a horrific outing in Oakland, where he walked five and hit two batters in 2.1 innings.

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It has been mostly a disaster for Kikuchi, who was signed to a three-year, $36 million US deal in the off-season. He accompanied the team here to Seattle, where he will work through the struggles that have plagued him throughout.

As manager Charlie Montoyo suggested, Kikuchi’s confidence has taken a hit. The team will obviously try to hit the reset button and hope they can salvage something from the thus far lost season.

To take Kikuchi’s spot on the roster, the Jays recalled reliever Max Castillo from triple-A Buffalo.

For the record, the Jays say that Kikuchi reported “neck stiffness” following his Tuesday start in Oakland and it hasn’t improved. The team says it plans to be conservative with his recovery.

GAUSMAN QUESTIONABLE

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As he continues to recover from a bruised ankle, Kevin Gausman is still hopeful he’ll be able to get a start in the series, possibly taking Kikuchi’s spot on Sunday.

Much of it will depend on a bullpen session scheduled for Friday, and Gausman said if not Sunday, he hopes that Tuesday would be a possibility back in Toronto.

Gamer that he is, Gausman didn’t even consider shutting down, especially after a second MRI taken on Thursday revealed that there was no fracture.

“That was never a thought, to be honest,” Gausman said. “Once we knew it wasn’t broken, I’m not going on the IL.

“Obviously we’re not playing our best brand of baseball right now, but every game is big. I’m not just going to potentially take myself out of two starts. We saw with this team at the end of last season how much every game matters.

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“If we were able to get in that same position and miss by one game … if I were the guy who made two less starts I’d feel pretty bad about that.”

AROUND THE BASES

With Gausman unavailable, the Jays were left with the desperation on Thursday of using Anthony Banda as an opener and handing the ball over to Casey Lawrence … For the second consecutive game, centre fielder George Springer wasn’t in the Jays lineup.  “He’s been grinding out and having aches and pains and we haven ’t been able to give him a full day off,” Montoyo said. Springer will be available off the bench, however … Another possible boost: Reliever Yimi Garcia is in Seattle and likely able to be activated on the weekend.

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