ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Blue Jays pitcher Eric Lauer had a dominant performance against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. But his response to how he got his fat lip had people wondering whether he was joking.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Blue Jays pitcher Eric Lauer had a dominant performance against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. But his response to how he got his fat lip had people wondering whether he was joking.
Lauer has been around, and doesn’t light up the radar gun, but the Jays rotation would be lost without him.
The 30-year-old left-hander, the junior member of the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Blue Jays’ veteran pitching rotation, threw eight innings of walk-free five-hitter, allowing only one run, in a series-opening 11-4 win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park that propelled the Jays into sole possession of first place in the American League. But after the game, the first question was about the fat lip.
“I knew that was coming,” smiled Lauer. “So, there’s kind of this, like, known thing not to mess with (Max) Scherzer on his start days, especially when he has his headphones in, and I broke that rule. I tried to talk to him a little too early. He wasn’t very happy about that, so six stitches is what you get for that.”
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There is little to no chance that, despite his well-known intensity, Scherzer actually slugged Lauer for talking to him too early on a start day. But for now, this is what the southpaw would have us believe.
As he walked away from the scrum after talking about his and the team’s great performance, I asked Lauer if we were really supposed to believe that Scherzer actually punched him in the face. He flashed a wry smile and shrugged his shoulders.
Eric Lauer explains his fat lip postgame.
Yeesh.
— Jori Negin-Shecter (@JNeginShecter)
We have learned two things from Lauer’s explanation: Being in first place seems to be a lot of fun, and lefties continue to be weird.
Mike Wilner is a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½-based baseball columnist for the Star
and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.†Follow him on
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