Marcus Stroman's start ends due to left shoulder pectoral cramp

TORONTO — In a season where the Blue Jays have been hit with injury after injury to the pitching staff, it looks like the club dodged a bullet on Saturday.

Marcus Stroman left his Saturday start against the Royals with what the team is calling a “left shoulder pectoral cramp.” While at first Stroman appeared to be in some discomfort, the injury isn’t considered very serious.

“Just a little cramp,” he said. “Nothing I’m too worried about. Just it would progress and get better as I went through the inning but it stayed consistent and made it hard to do what I do in my delivery. I’ll just figure it out in these next few days and be back on the mound in five.”

The confusingly-worded ailment arose at the beginning of the fifth inning during the starter’s warmup pitches.

“He’s a flexible guy, he’s always moving around. I didn’t really think anything of it right away,” catcher Danny Jansen said. “After his first pitch, the look on his face you could tell something was going on.”

Stroman was favouring his arm after that offering and lasted just two pitches into the inning. Following his second pitch, he called to the dugout to be removed.

“I thought it was something that, over the next few pitches, my intensity level, it would fix itself,” he said. “But it was just there. Just being cautious I figured I’d come out rather than chance it.”

Stroman didn’t know exactly what brought about the issue, with dehydration being one theory.

“It could have been,” he said. “I don’t eat much or drink much on game days, I’m always pretty nauseous and pretty nervous. Could have been, but it’s nothing we could zero in on and say that was the case.”

The 28-year-old was in the midst of an outing where he’d allowed three earned runs in four innings. Following the truncated start he has a 3.18 ERA and 3.79 FIP on the season.

More Blue Jays coverage from Yahoo Sports Canada