Marco Estrada pitching through herniated disk in back
Toronto Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada has struggled of late, and a bulky back appears to be holding him back.
Over his last seven starts, Marco Estrada of the Toronto Blue Jays has posted a 1-5 record with a 6.95 ERA across 33.2 innings. He has given up 43 hits while walking 16. In his most recent start against the Tampa Bay Rays, Estrada was tagged for four runs in 5.1 innings while also walking two.
Estrada, who signed a two-year contract with the Blue Jays last offseason, has been dealing with a bad back all season. He was on the disabled list from July 6 through July 22, and the back has not healed. Estrada has only four quality starts (six innings, three earned runs or fewer) in ten starts since coming off the DL.
According to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports, it is a herniated disk that is affecting the Jays’ right-hander. Earlier this year, Estrada received cortisone shots to help him pitch through the pain.
Estrada was one of the breakout stories of the 2015 season, emerging from anonymity to post a 3.13 ERA in his first full season as a starting pitcher in the big leagues. The Blue Jays rewarded his efforts with a $26 million contract, and he had been off to an excellent start to the season before the injury bug hit. Unfortunately for Estrada, he is the type of soft-tossing pitcher who has to be functioning at 100 percent to be effective. He relies on excellent command and deception to induce soft contact, but that is much harder to do with a back injury that makes it hard to finish pitches.
The injury comes at an awful time for the Blue Jays, who are also currently without Josh Donaldson as he deals with a bad hip. Toronto is currently running out a six-man rotation in an effort to limit Aaron Sanchez’s innings, but he left his last start early with a blister. J.A. Happ, a Cy Young contender, R.A. Dickey, Marcus Stroman, and Francisco Liriano round out the rotation. Of that quartet, only Happ can be counted on to turn in a quality start every time he takes the hill.
The Blue Jays are 3-9 so far in September, and are losing ground quickly to the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. Estrada has been pitching through this injury for awhile now, but it is clearly limiting his effectiveness. A rotation that was so good for so much of the 2016 season could ultimately doom the Blue Jays in the race for the postseason.
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