TORONTO — The reliever the Blue Jays need right now isn’t making $10 million, wasn’t the deadline splash and doesn’t live in the headlines. Really, there’s nothing flashy about him at all.
Most days, the big, bearded Tommy Nance can be found sauntering through the clubhouse wearing an old Dodge t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, “Ram It” written across the front. In a bullpen stuck dodging hitters and dodging the strike zone all together, Nance — this bullpen’s Big Diesel — just keeps on trucking.
Sunday’s 8-4 win over the Brewers was messier than the box score could ever describe, full of fumbling, stumbling and some bizarre base running decisions, but Nance put his foot down to stop what could have been the game’s ugliest moment. With that one inning of work, dropping his ERA to 0.82, Nance showed us all why he deserves some bigger spots in September.
“I just want to help this team any way I’m called upon to do,” Nance said, standing in front of the cameras and microphones for the very first time in Toronto. “For me, my attitude and my mindset doesn’t change from one situation to another. I just stick to my plan and attack. It’s fun. I had a blast out there. It was awesome.”
The Blue Jays still need Jeff Hoffman to bounce back, still need Brendon Little to figure this out and still need Louis Varland to look like the top-end reliever they traded for a month ago, but all that matters in September and October is that it works. In April and May, contracts, service time and reputation can factor in, but this is results season. The Blue Jays are in a race for the AL East, and we’re looking at a sample size of 10-15 innings left in the regular season for these back-end arms. The hot hand is all that matters now.
“He’s thrown the ball really well and he has two really good breaking balls with a really good sinker,” manager John Schneider said of Nance. “This is him understanding how his stuff plays and how it works. Coming into a spot like that, bases loaded with one out, you’re counting on at least one strikeout. He got it. He’s been awesome.”
When Toronto’s beleaguered bullpen took over for Max Scherzer after four innings, Little immediately loaded the bases despite a pair of grounders that he, himself, could have turned into outs defensively. At one point, Little tripped over himself trying to field a dribbler up the first-base line. Less than 24 hours after boos rained down on Hoffman, they came again for the Blue Jays bullpen, this fan base growing more frustrated by the day.
Enter Nance, who quickly and calmly struck out Andrew Vaughn for the second out of the inning, then forced a routine grounder out of Isaac Collins. The inning that reeked of disaster was suddenly wiped clean, even Little escaping without a run charged to him. They were the two biggest outs of Nance’s season, saving the Blue Jays from what would have been an ugly, sobering sweep to the Brewers.
It’s been a remarkable run for Nance, the 34-year-old journeyman with only 116 1/3 career innings over four big-league seasons, none of which held much promise until now. The Blue Jays have always loved something about Nance, though, always whispering about some upside they’ve believed they could unearth. It looks like it’s finally here and the moments are finally calling for him.
“All of us want to be in big situations like that. It goes back to when we were kids playing wiffle ball,” Nance said. “Bottom of the ninth, tie game, 3-2 count. Those are the moments that we live for.”
With a situation like this, there needs to be a “why.” There’s always a level of luck and small sample sizes involved with relievers, but if Nance were doing this by pitching the same way he always has, it would be easier to poke holes and wonder how long it will last. He’s changed, though, and that’s why there’s reason to believe in Nance having a shot to keep this run going.
He’s leaned into his slider, suddenly featuring it as his primary pitch, almost doubling his usage from a year ago (25.8% to 45%). Oddly enough, it’s not his big whiff pitch — that’s the curveball — but it’s been incredibly effective for him early in counts.
Schneider wants relievers who throw strikes, a point he’s needed to make more often and more pointedly in recent days. No Dodge, all Ram, it’s all Nance does.
