TORONTO — Canadian right-hander Mike Soroka says his start Tuesday for the Atlanta Braves at the Rogers Centre will be like making a second debut.
The 20-year-old from Calgary will be making his fifth major league start Dan Bailey Cowboys Jersey , but Tuesday night in the opener of a two-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays he will be pitching against the team he grew up watching and with friends in attendance.
Soroka (2-1, 2.57 ERA) will be facing Blue Jays left-hander Jaime Garcia (2-5, 5.71), who is 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA in eight career starts against Atlanta.
It also will be a return for first-year Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who was the Blue Jays GM from October 2009 through 2015.
“Even though I’m from the other side of Canada, it’s the one team you grew up watching,” Soroka told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’ll be pretty special.”
He has pitched before at the Rogers Centre, as a 15-year-old in a tournament.
“It’s almost like a second debut of sorts,” Soroka said. “Just get out there, knowing that a bunch of friends are going to be coming there, a lot of friends who’ve been Blue Jays fans for a long time too. … I’m just going to be familiar with the Rogers Centre, so that’s going to be cool too. And I’ll be out there on a mound I’ve been on before too, so that’s pretty awesome.”
Soroka is coming off his best major league outing. After spending a month on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation, he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of a 2-0 win over the New York Mets Wednesday. He left after 6 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and one walk and adding four strikeouts.
Soroka does not expect to feel more excitement in this start Tuesday than he did in his previous four.
“There’s a certain amount of amped up you can have in the big leagues Brian Urlacher Bears Jersey ,” Soroka said. “I don’t think I’ll be any more amped up than I was my last four, especially because it’s a new thing right now. I don’t think I’m running short on adrenalin.”
The Braves (42-29) are in first place in the National League East. They have won two in a row and six of their past eight after defeating the San Diego Padres 4-1 Sunday.
The Blue Jays (33-38) have won three in a row and seven of their past 10 games after completing a three-game sweep Sunday with an 8-6 win over the Washington Nationals, who are second in the NL East.
The Blue Jays have won seven straight home games for the first time since July 2-8, 2016. After struggling at home earlier in the season, they are now 19-19 at the Rogers Centre. They are 6-2 against the NL this season.
Toronto right fielder Randal Grichuk, an early-season disappointment who also spent time on the disabled list with a right knee sprain, had two solo home runs and four RBIs Sunday in going 3-for-3 with a walk. He has hit five homers in his past 12 games.
“I feel like we’ve found a lot of consistency when we’ve been playing here lately,” Grichuk said of the Blue Jays’ recent success at home. “Obviously that (0-3) Tampa Bay series (against the Rays at Tropicana Field) threw a wrench at us, but I feel like we’re swinging the bat well, and when our pitchers go out and give us a chance to win, we’ve been doing a good job of being able to score and get some leads. Hopefully that just continues.”
Another early-season disappointment, Toronto second baseman Devon Travis was 2-for-4 with a double Sunday and is batting .345 (20-for-58) with three homers and eight RBIs in his past 19 games.
The timing of a possible return from the disabled list of third baseman Josh Donaldson (tight left calf) is not known yet.
The Braves, meanwhile, will have catcher Kurt Suzuki available for the game Tuesday. He was struck in the head on a backswing during the second inning Sunday at SunTrust Park and left the game. Tests indicated that he did not have a concussion.
“It was kind of a precautionary thing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He got hit good. The doctors wanted to look at him and I’m sure he wanted to come back out. But something like that is not something you want to mess with.”
Digging deeper into a culture war that he’s repeatedly stoked Jimmy Garoppolo Jersey Youth , President Donald Trump on Monday called off a visit to the White House by the Philadelphia Eagles, citing the dispute over whether NFL players protesting racial injustice must stand during the playing of the national anthem.
Trump said in a statement that some members of the Super Bowl championship team ”disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.”
He said the team wanted to send a smaller delegation Tuesday, but ”the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better.”
Instead, Trump said he would be hosting ”a different type of ceremony,” featuring the U.S. Marine Band and the U.S. Army Chorus, that ”will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem.”
None of the Eagles took a knee during the anthem in 2017.
One of the people set to attend the ceremony told The Associated Press less than half of the team’s 53-man roster planned to go. The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the decision.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney replied with his own statement, saying that he is ”equally proud of the Eagles’ activism off the field” and that the players ”represent the diversity of our nation – a nation in which we are free to express our opinions.”
”Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend,” Kenney said.
Last week, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said he would not attend the ceremony because he didn’t want to be part of a photo op and wanted ”to avoid being used as any kind of pawn.” In addition to Jenkins Tarik Cohen Bears Jersey , defensive end Chris Long was the most outspoken player against going. Quarterback Carson Wentz had planned to attend.
It was unclear exactly what prompted the change of plans. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about what had sparked the decision and why the circumstances were different from other events honoring winning teams, which some players have boycotted.
Late Monday, though, Trump wrote on Twitter that ”Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event.”
Several players asked about Trump’s decision not to host them declined to respond. The Eagles issued a statement without directly addressing the White House cancellation.
”Watching the entire Eagles community come together has been an inspiration,” the team statement read. ”We are truly grateful for all of the support we have received and we are looking forward to continuing our preparations for the 2018 season.”
Wide receiver Torrey Smith, who said previously that he planned to skip the visit, responded with a series of tweets.
”So many lies,” he wrote, adding, ”Not many people were going to go.”
Smith, who played on the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia team before being traded to the Carolina Panthers in March, added: ”No one refused to go simply because Trump `insists’ folks stand for the anthem. … The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti military.”
He went on: ”There are a lot of people on the team that have plenty of different views. The men and women that wanted to go should’ve been able to go. It’s a cowardly act to cancel the celebration because the majority of the people don’t want to see you. To make it about the anthem is foolish.”
The announcement was the latest signal that tensions remain high around the NFL protests that began in 2016 when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began silently kneeling on the sidelines while the anthem played. Kaepernick’s protest was an effort to raise awareness around systemic racism and, specifically LeSean McCoy Bills Jersey , the killing of black men by police.
He was soon joined by teammate Eric Reid. Both Reid and Kaepernick have filed grievances against the NFL and remain unsigned since their contracts with the 49ers expired.
Last season, Vice President Mike Pence left the 49ers game against the Indianapolis Colts after about a dozen San Francisco players took a knee during the anthem. Pence, who left before kickoff, tweeted soon afterward, ”I left today’s Colts game becaue (at)POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.”
Trump has repeatedly decried the players’ protest, referring to them as ”sons of bitches” who should be fired at a rally for supporters in Alabama last year. Last month, the NFL announced a new policy – praised on Twitter by both Trump and Pence – requiring players to stand for the anthem if they’re on the field before a game.
After the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2017, several players declined to attend the White House ceremony honoring their team last August, citing their differences with the president. In February, the Golden State Warriors declined to attend the White House ceremony honoring their 2017 NBA Championship, instead using their trip to Washington to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
During an interview after the new NFL policy was announced, Trump praised the league for doing ”the right thing.”
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