TORONTO (AP) -Blue Jays left-hander B.J. Ryan went straight to the manager’s office after coming off the disabled list and told Cito Gaston to use him in any inning he wanted.
Ryan, 1-0 with an 11.12 ERA and two blown saves in four chances, was activated off the 15-day DL after Thursday’s loss to the New York Yankees. He’s been out since April 23 with muscle tightness in his back and shoulder.
Scott Downs went 3 for 3 in save chances while Ryan was out. General manager J.P. Ricciardi said Tuesday that Downs will continue to get the call in the ninth inning.
Ryan understands Ricciardi’s decision and said there are no hard feelings.
“You lose your role by not pitching good,” Ryan said. “That’s what it boils down to. You don’t pitch good, you don’t make pitches and you put your team in a place that they don’t need to be in.
said. “I didn’t pitch well.”
That’s why Ryan, who’s in the fourth year of a five-year, $47-million contract, made a beeline for Gaston’s office upon his return to Toronto.
“I walked in there to Cito and said, ‘Cito, I’ll be down there, I’ll pitch whenever you want me to pitch.”’
Gaston hasn’t decided how and when to use Ryan but insisted he won’t shy away from him.
“He hasn’t lost my trust,” Gaston said. “It’s just he certainly wasn’t pitching the way he wanted to be pitching or the way we wanted him to.”
During his rehab in Florida, Ryan worked with roving pitching coach Rick Langford on slowing his delivery to improve his command, a problem that’s dogged him since spring training.
“It’s probably getting back to where I was, getting back to being able to repeat on the mound, being consistent,” Ryan said. “You can’t continuously pitch yourself into trouble and that’s what I was doing. That’s when you need to take a step back and say, ‘Hey, you know what? You need to fix something.”’
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