TORONTO — The Blue Jays like hitting at Rogers Centre. R.A. Dickey likes pitching there.
The right-hander will take his knuckleball into Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals. Dickey aims to even the series at two games apiece after Toronto won 11-8 in Game 3 on Monday.
The roof at the retractable stadium will be closed, and that suits Dickey fine.
“I like this stadium, I felt I can have good results here,” he said. “(It is a positive) anytime that you can take out an exponent of the equation, which is the climate in my particular case, because I don’t have to worry about rain or moisture or wind when they have the dome closed.”
In Game 4 of the AL Division Series against the Texas Rangers, Dickey had a six-run lead when he was removed in favor of left-hander David Price with two outs in the fifth.
The move deprived him of the win, which went to Price, who worked three innings after he was brought in to deal with the left-handed bats that Texas had coming up. Manager John Gibbons did not want to let the Rangers back into the game. The strategy worked.
Dickey had a good game against the Royals the only time he faced them this season. He allowed only two hits and two walks in seven shutout innings on Aug. 2 in Toronto.
In that outing, Dickey said he tried to attack the strike zone.
“I was fortunate because they’re a swinging team, and they were hitting pieces of the ball because it was moving well,” he said “Hopefully, I can repeat that.”
He respects the Royals.
“One of their key qualities as a team … they spoil a lot of pitcher counts and work the count back in their favor quite a bit,” Dickey said. “This is going to sound paradoxical, but it’s important for me to always be pitching to contact with my knuckleball. And that means I have to be relentless in throwing strikes with it. I think it’s important to me to take a shot or two out of the strike zone.
“But the great thing about the knuckleball is that it can be in the strike zone and can be just as effective as out of the strike zone because it moves so chaotically, so late. If I’m inducing a lot of weak contact, it’s great.”