Marcus Stroman on 'The game I won't forget'

Ask Marcus Stroman about the biggest thrill of his baseball life and several games immediately come to mind. Then one emerges as the definitive answer.

Officially, it is Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series, a 6-3 Blue Jays win over the Rangers for Toronto’s first postseason series victory in more than two decades.

Unofficially, it is the Jose Bautista Bat Flip Game. His three-run home run, the eventual game-winner, served as the climax of a 53-minute seventh inning. It produced one of the more iconic images in recent baseball history, of Bautista standing at home plate to admire the flight of the ball and starting his trot around the bases with an angry-looking bat toss.

His shot was a no-doubter among no-doubters off the facing of the second deck in leftfield, sending the Rogers Centre crowd into a garbage-throwing frenzy, drawing the ire of Rangers reliever Sam Dyson and triggering some bases-clearing excitement after Bautista rounded the bases.

“The moment was so big,” Stroman said, “that I forgot that I pitched.” 

To emphasize: In picking the favorite game of his career, Stroman chose one he momentarily forgot he actually played in.

“I felt like a fan,” said Stroman, who was one of the first Blue Jays out of the dugout after Bautista’s blast. “I think that’s why it was cool. I felt like a fan. I was as intense as the fan next to me watching the game. So it was a pretty cool atmosphere.”

First, Stroman’s role: He allowed two runs and six hits in six innings, striking out four and walking one. Texas scored in the first, when Delino DeShields led off with a double and scored on Prince Fielder’s groundout, and in the third, when Shin-Soo Choo homered.

That was an iffy opening for Stroman, who had the Blue Jays in a two-run hole. But he settled in for three more scoreless innings to keep Toronto in a tie game heading into the late innings.

“I don’t remember any of that,” Stroman said. “I can usually buckle down. I love that moment. I feel like the bigger the moment, the more I’m able to lock it in. That was one of those times my team kept me in the game early on, so I was like, ‘I need to kick it into gear here to give us an opportunity.’ ”

When Stroman exited at the start of the seventh, he skipped his usual post-start routine — cooling down and getting his right shoulder worked on — for the sake of staying in the dugout. Taking care of his body is important to Stroman, who that year tore his ACL in March and remarkably returned to a big-league mound in September. But the win-or-go-home implications of Game 5 called for deviation from routine.

Chaos ensued. The Rangers took the lead in the top of the seventh when catcher Russell Martin’s toss back to the pitcher instead bounced off the bat of Choo, who was at the plate, allowing Rougned Odor to score. The controversial play took several minutes and a long review to sort out and angered the Canadian crowd.

The bottom of the seventh began with the Rangers’ infield committing three errors on three grounders that could have been outs, loading the bases. Then Odor dropped Josh Donaldson’s pop-up, allowing the tying run to score.

That set the stage for Bautista — and the biggest moment of the most thrilling game of Stroman’s career.

“I think it was the most dramatic inning in baseball history in a long time,” he said. “Usually I remember all the games I pitch. That’s the one game I didn’t even remember I pitched because the moment was so big. That’s why it stands out from all the others.”