When it comes to Buffalo Bisons history, T.J. Zeuch is best known for his no-hitter just over 13 months ago in Rochester. For the Toronto Blue Jays, Zeuch has one win each of the last two seasons – and both have been against the New York Yankees.
The right-hander has spent most of the season at Toronto's Alternate Training Site in Rochester but found his way back to Sahlen Field to toss 3 1/3 strong innings and earn a win in Monday's 11-5 Toronto victory.
"My mindset going in was be as aggressive as I can, make them swing early and often and get my team back in the dugout so they could swing again," Zeuch said on a video call Tuesday before the teams' second game of the series.
"Just being in the zone, establishing a rhythm and tempo builds the confidence, and having a good defense behind you breeds the confidence. Every ball hit to them they made look like a routine play."
Zeuch, 25, didn't make the Blue Jays out of summer camp and admitted he needed work on his breaking pitches and more velocity in his repertoire. He was throwing only 87 mph in the summer but a couple mechanical adjustments and weight work helped him get to the 92-93 range here Monday. He did that through simulated games in Rochester's Frontier Field, the site of the no-hitter.
"I focused in on those things every day and not really worrying about big picture," he said. "You don't have to worry about your numbers. You don't have to worry about putting your team in a bad spot because you've been knocked around working on a certain pitch."
Zeuch's power sinker induced seven groundouts to the first nine hitters he faced Monday. He allowed just one run and one hit in his stint.
"What you need to do when you get a lead like that is throw strikes and make them put the ball in play and he did," said manager Charlie Montoyo. "He was really good, threw strikes and gave us a chance to score a couple more. He was outstanding."
Zeuch's no-hitter joined Bartolo Colon (1997) as the only ones in the Bisons' modern era. That game doesn't matter much going forward in his career but Zeuch admitted he uses it when he needs to look back.
"The biggest thing is there are times when I'm in a slump that's a game I can go back to and see where I was and how things were moving in terms of my body and what it looked like," he said. "Obviously I was pretty sharp that night, my pitches were working for me. I can go back, see video of that, see where my pitch locations were, what pitches I was throwing in certain counts, just to get a little bit of confidence back."
Around the horn
• The Blue Jays closed down the Rochester training site after Monday's workout. The players who will be part of the 40-man postseason bubble arrived in Buffalo Tuesday to join the team. Montoyo said Bisons manager Ken Huckaby, who was running the camp, is back in Buffalo for at least the next couple days.
• The home run by 21-year-old Alejandro Kirk in Monday's game made him the youngest catcher in Blue Jays history to go deep, ahead of Jeff DeWillis (22) in 1987. Kirk, who had not played above A ball until making his debut earlier this month, is the youngest catcher to homer in the big leagues since Dioner Navarro was 21 when he went deep for Tampa Bay in 2005.
• The Yankees gave Giancarlo Stanton a night off Tuesday. Aaron Judge, who was in right field on Monday, was the DH on Tuesday. Manager Aaron Boone said Judge should get one more day off before the season ends. Both sluggers are on the comeback road after missing large chunks of the season with leg injuries.
