Three things: Ross Stripling delivers start to finish on successful Jays road trip

DETROIT—Three things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 6-0 win over the Tigers in Detroit on Sunday:

Bookends

Ross Stripling opened the Jays’ road trip by throwing five innings of one-hit shutout in Kansas City, facing only one batter over the minimum. He finished the trip with six innings of one-hit shutout, facing the minimum Sunday.

Two incredible starts for a pitcher who wasn’t even in the rotation a week and a half ago, having moved back in with the injury to Hyun-Jun Ryu.

The veteran righty, who has a weekly segment on the Star’s Deep Left Field podcast, has three wins and a save over his last five appearances and is running a 13 2/3-inning scoreless streak. The Jays went 4-2 on the road.

Second helping

The Jays managed just two singles against Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal in his first time through the lineup, but they got to thumping upon a second look.

The top of the fourth began with a hard-hit single by Bo Bichette. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed by launching his team-leading 14th home run of the season to left-centre, a no-doubt blast.

The Jays would score twice more in the frame on doubles by Teoscar Hernández, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Cavan Biggio. The shots by Gurriel and Biggio were held in by the cavernous dimensions of Comerica Park. Each would have been a home run in 14 of the 29 other big-league ballparks.

Lourdes thunderin’

Gurriel added a two-run single in the eighth for good measure. Don’t look now, but that streaky bat is heating up. The left fielder hit just .189 in May, but went 6-for-14 over the final four games of the month. He’s kept it going into June, now batting .400 since May 27 with 13 RBIs over his last 13 starts.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness

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