Blue Jays Series Preview: A’s landing hot at the Dome

Game 3:  Sunday, April 24th  –  1:07 p.m. ET

Marcus Stroman (3-0, 4.13 ERA) vs.
Eric Surkamp (0-1, 3.68 ERA)

The Blue Jays will face journeyman Eric Surkamp in the final game of the series. The 28-year-old lefty has is currently on his fourth Major League roster in four years, after pitching for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants since 2013.

This could be Toronto’s best bet for an offensive outburst, as Surkamp has yet to work deep into a ball game or post strong strikeout numbers in any of his starts. Through 14.2 innings, he has struck out six batters and walked eight.

In his last outing against the Yankees in New York, Surkamp pitched 5.2 innings while allowing two earned runs on seven hits and walking three.

Marcus Stroman makes his fifth start of the year for Toronto looking for his fourth win, but he’s still looking for a true shutdown start. His ERA is slightly inflated from the five earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Boston Red Sox on April 8th, but he hasn’t posted that shutout start with high strikeout totals just yet.

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His ground balls forced have been absolutely excellent, though. Stroman’s sinking fastball has produced steady work for the infield and an incredible 61.8% ground ball rate. With that, perhaps the strikeout totals won’t be terribly necessary.

Stroman’s 4.13 ERA is matched with a more impressive 0.99 WHIP, and with the limited on-base tool of the Athletics to this point in the season, the stars could be aligning here for Stroman to put together a complete game.