August 4, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Some Canadian baseball news and notes:

-On Friday night, Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) had a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning in his long-awaited Buffalo Bisons debut. The Bisons went on to win 5-3 over the Worcester Red Sox at Polar Park. Votto also walked in a pinch-hit at bat on Saturday. On July 19, Votto was promoted to the triple-A Bisons for the latest stop in his long rehab assignment with the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately, on the day he arrived in Buffalo, he stepped on a ball during a pre-game fielding drill and sprained the same ankle that he has been rehabbing since March. Earlier in the season, Votto had gone 8-for-38 (.211 batting average) in 13 games for class-A Dunedin. Votto told Canadian Baseball Network editor-in-chief Bob Elliott in an interview on July 26 that he hopes to being playing in the majors by the end of the season. “Not a minute do I regret this season,” Votto told Elliott. “My goal is still to play for the Toronto Blue Jays. To play in front of my family, my friends, my city and my country. I want to do the best I can chugging forward.”

-Congratulations to Boston Red Sox left-hander James Paxton (Ladner, B.C.) who recorded his 1,000th major league strikeout during his start against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday. According to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, this makes him the seventh Canadian to reach this milestone. Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.) is the leader with 3,192 strikeouts. Paxton’s fellow Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta (Victoria, B.C.) also recorded his 1,000th strikeout this season (on May 25). Paxton fanned Mariners first baseman Justin Turner in the fourth inning on Tuesday to reach the milestone. He added another K in the fifth, but, unfortunately, he was the losing pitcher in the Mariners’ 10-6 victory. If Paxton stays healthy for the rest of the season, he has a good chance at passing longtime Detroit Tigers left-hander John Hiller (Toronto, Ont.), who had 1,036 major league strikeouts, and moving into fifth on the all-time Canadian strikeout list.

-Speaking of Pivetta, although he is just short of the number of innings to qualify, he has fanned batters at a rate of 11.1 per nine innings as a starter this season. If he qualified, that would rank second in the American League behind only Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet (12.321 K/9). Pivetta struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings to earn the win over the Mariners on Wednesday night. It was his third 10-strikeout game in his last five starts. He now owns a 5-7 record and a 4.47 ERA in 17 starts, spanning 90 2/3 innings this season. The Junior National Team alum will start today against the Texas Rangers.

-Infielder Charles Leblanc (Laval, Que.) was called by the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday (Thanks to Scott Crawford at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for the heads up). He was batting .262 with a .382 on-base percentage (OBP) with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs in 81 games with the Angels’ triple-A Salt Lake Bees this season. This was Leblanc’s first big league call-up since 2022 when he batted .263 with four home runs and 11 RBIs with the Miami Marlins. The 28-year-old Leblanc spent the 2023 campaign with the Marlins’ triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, batting .253, while posting a .384 OBP, in 94 games. Selected by the Rangers in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB draft, Leblanc spent five seasons in the Rangers’ organization, rising as high as triple-A in 2021. He was then chosen by the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft in December 2021. The Junior National Team alum also suited up for Canada in the Premier12 tournament in 2019.

-Happy 27th Birthday to Chicago White Sox right-hander Michael Soroka! The Calgary, Alta., native is currently on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain. To say Soroka has had a challenging season is an understatement. His record is 0-10, but for the most part, he had been excellent out of the bullpen for the Sox after beginning the season in the rotation. As a reliever, Soroka owns a 3.49 ERA in 12 relief appearances and has 47 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings. A graduate of the Calgary Redbirds and Junior National Team, Soroka was a first-round pick (28th overall) of the Atlanta Braves in 2015. In 2019, he went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts and finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. He has pitched in parts of five major league seasons.

-Congratulations to Blue Jays reliever Zach Pop (Brampton, Ont.) who recorded his first major league save in the Blue Jays’ 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers last Sunday. Pop entered that contest with two outs with runners on second and third in the eighth inning and got Jonah Heim to ground out to end the frame. He then retired the Rangers in order in the ninth. After a rocky start to the season, the Toronto Mets and Junior National Team alum has fared much better recently. In his past five relief appearances, he has allowed just one run and has lowered his season ERA to 5.24.

-It was 33 years ago today that an underdog Canadian Junior National Team beat Chinese-Taipei 5-2 in Brandon, Man., to win the gold medal at the World Youth Baseball Championships. It was Canada’s first gold at an international baseball competition. The team was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1992. You can read more about the team here.

-Cleveland Guardians reliever Cade Smith (Abbotsford, B.C.) just keeps getting better. The rookie right-hander has not allowed a run in his past 13 relief appearances – dating back more than a month – and he has lowered his season ERA to 1.86. In 51 games, the Junior National Team and Abbotsford Cardinals grad is 5-1 and has struck out 74 in 53 1/3 innings. In my opinion, he deserves serious consideration for the American League Rookie of the Year award.

-Well, it didn’t take Jared Young (Prince George, B.C.) long to get adjusted to playing overseas with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). In his second game with the club, he went 5-for-6 and belted two home runs and had eight RBIs to lead the Bears to a 30-6 victory over the Kia Tigers. For his efforts, he was named the KBO’s International Player of the Week. The St. Louis Cardinals sold Young’s contract to the Bears on July 23. Young had not seen big league action this season, but he was batting .285 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs in 74 games with the triple-A Memphis Chicks. The Cardinals claimed the 29-year-old outfielder off waivers from the Chicago Cubs on November 6 after he had been outrighted off the Cubs’ roster. In two stints with the Cubs in 2023, Young had eight hits – including three triples and two home runs – while scoring eight runs. Selected in the 15th round of the 2017 MLB draft by the Cubs, the Okanagan Athletics alum played parts of six seasons in the minors before he made his MLB debut with the Cubs in 2022, going 5-for-19 (.263 batting average) in six games that September.

-It was 41 years ago today that Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull at Exhibition Stadium. As anyone who attended games at Exhibition Stadium can attest, the seagulls were abundant at the facility, and when Winfield was playing catch with the Blue Jays ball boy during the fifth inning, he threw the ball and (according to Winfield) accidentally hit a seagull that was near the first base line. The seagull died when Winfield’s one-bounce throw hit it in the neck. A Blue Jays bat boy was forced to carry the deceased bird off the field in a towel in front of a boisterous Toronto crowd. After the game, Winfield was taken to police headquarters and charged with “unnecessary suffering to an animal.” The charge was dropped the next day when the senior crown attorney said they wouldn’t be able to prove that Winfield had “intent” to kill the bird.

-Please take a moment to remember legendary trainer and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Doc Younker who was born on this date in 1921. He passed away in Langley, B.C. in 2016 at the age of 94. Younker served as a trainer in amateur and professional baseball for more than 50 years. Born in Auburn, Wash., Younker became a U.S. army private and later landed his first job as a trainer with the Western International League’s Vancouver Capilanos in 1954. He served in a similar capacity with the Seattle Rainiers the following year, before returning to Vancouver to work with the Pacific Coast League Mounties in 1956. He landed his first big league gig as a relief trainer with the expansion Los Angeles Angels in 1961 and later served as the head trainer with the San Diego Padres from 1976 to 1985. At the amateur level, Younker devoted countless hours to Canada’s national teams, tending to athletes at the Olympics, Pan Am Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Intercontinental Cups. He also served as a multi-sport trainer at various Arizona high schools, teaching classes in first aid and physiotherapy. Many of his students are now practicing physiotherapists.

-Thirty-five years ago today, Blue Jays legend Dave Stieb had retired the first 26 New York Yankees batters during his start at SkyDome. Wth the Blue Jays leading 2-0 with two outs in the ninth, Stieb seemed to be on the brink of throwing the first perfect game in Blue Jays’ history. But then he hung a breaking ball to Roberto Kelly and the Yankees outfielder belted it into left field for a double (Video below). Steve Sax then followed with a single to make the score 2-1, but Stieb settled down to get the final out for the win. In that contest, Stieb had 11 strikeouts and did not walk a batter. It was the third time in two seasons he had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth inning.

-I’m happy to see Baseball Canada alum Jacob Robson (Windsor, Ont.) playing again. He had been on the independent Atlantic League’s voluntarily retired list since the start of the season, but he was activated by the Gastonia Baseball Club on Monday. The 29-year-old outfielder has since gone 6-for-16 (.375 batting average) with seven runs and three RBIs in five games for Gastonia. The left-handed hitting outfielder has been outstanding for Canada in several international competitions, including at the World Baseball Classic last March. In 2023, he posted a .398 on-base percentage in 69 games for the Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association. Selected in the eighth round of the 2016 MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers, Robson played parts of six seasons in the Tigers’ organization, including four games in the majors in 2021.