Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Jose Berrios will go for his third win of the season Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of a three-game series against the visiting Colorado Rockies.
The Blue Jays evened the series Saturday when they scored five runs in the first inning and held on for a 5-3 victory. Daulton Varsho hit a grand slam against Dakota Hudson for what proved to be the difference.
The Rockies won the opener 12-4 on Friday.
Berrios (2-0, 1.45 ERA) has been superb in his first three starts of the season.
The Rockies are scheduled to start left-hander Kyle Freeland (0-2, 16.03).
Berrios pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings when the Blue Jays won their home opener 5-2 over the Seattle Mariners on Monday.
Berrios said before the season that he intended to increase his intensity on the mound and not worry so much about results.
“It’s been working,” Berrios said. “The way I’ve been preparing myself day-by-day, before the outing, during the game. I was trying to be respectful but when I go out there I have to be a bad dog, that’s what I’ve got in mind. Obviously, having in mind I still have to enjoy the game, I respect my teammates and the other guys, but I want to have that in mind, like I want to give my hundred percent pitch by pitch.”
Berrios is 1-0 in one career start against the Rockies. It was on May 18, 2017, when he was with the Minnesota Twins. He threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out 11 and allowing one walk and two hits in Minneapolis.
Freeland will be starting against Toronto for the first time in his career.
Sunday will be Freeland’s fourth start of the season, his third on the road. He did not factor into the decision in the Rockies’ 7-5 home win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits in five innings. He had allowed 17 total runs over 5 2/3 innings in his first two starts of the season.
“I can’t lie, those first two starts were an absolute gut punch to me coming off the (solid) spring that I had,” Freeland said. “I was riding high with a lot of confidence, and to have it wiped away like that was a pretty terrible feeling.
“But that’s why we keep playing this game. To come out tonight, grind for five innings, and be able to get a team win out of it.”
“They didn’t really hit the ball hard against Kyle,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “It was a lot of grounders. Overall, Kyle competed hard as he always does, and he made good pitches when he needed them. … It was a step forward.”
Yariel Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Cuban right-hander, made his major league debut Saturday.
He allowed one run and struck out six in 3 2/3 innings. Bowden Francis, who originally was listed to start Saturday, got the win after allowing two runs over 2 1/3 innings in relief of Rodriguez.
“Today was a pretty good blueprint,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “But if it’s Bowden an inning and two-thirds or two innings, or four, we have the luxury to do that. A lot of it just depends on how the game unfolds. Today worked out really well. But it’s not going to be written in stone that this is how we’re going to do it every single time.”
