Blue Jays' Sanchez shines in major-league debut

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons could scarcely contain his enthusiasm about the debut performance of top prospect Aaron Sanchez, who threw two perfect innings while notching a pair of strikeouts to help his club secure a 6-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night.

"Pretty impressive," Gibbons told Sportsnet's Shi Davidi. "I don’t know how you can do it any better than that."

"He looked like he belonged," added Gibbons. "You see different guys over the years, young kids that come up and they can look a little rattled. We've seen that in the past a little bit, but he carries himself a lot like [rookie right-hander Marcus] Stroman."

Selected 34th overall in the 2010 draft, Sanchez was promoted from Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday to bolster a tired bullpen that owns a 4.50 ERA this season, the second-worst mark in the American League. The 22-year-old comported himself with aplomb Wednesday, throwing 16 of his 25 pitches for strikes while hitting 99 miles per hour on the radar gun several times.

"I thought he handled himself with great poise and hopefully that’s kind of a microcosm of what he’s going to become," said starter R.A. Dickey, who allowed four runs over six innings while grabbing his eighth win of the season Wednesday.