If Jays right-hander Shaun Marcum was at all worried about the responsibility and pressure of becoming the first Toronto Opening Day starter since 2002 not named Roy Halladay, he had an unusual way of showing it.
Marcum spent much of the time prior to Sunday's workout at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington asleep on a training table in a back room.
"I'm sure the adrenaline will hit (Monday), but this feels like just a normal workout day," Marcum said. "I feel like if I go out there and just throw my game, throw strikes, keep the ball down, we're going to have a pretty good chance to win.''
Marcum is just the third pitcher this century to miss an entire season and then start for his team the next Opening Day.
The others were Scott Erickson of the '02 Orioles and Carl Pavano of the '07 Yankees.
Far less physically imposing than Halladay, Marcum is working on 565 days between starts, last toeing the rubber for the Jays back on Sept. 16, 2008. Marcum had elbow ligament replacement surgery shortly after his last action. Even with seven minor-league rehab starts last summer and some Grapefruit League action this spring, he knows it will be different.
"It was nice to get to spring training and actually face some big-league hitters," Marcum said. "But it's still going to be a little different pitching in a real big-league stadium with 40-50,000 fans instead of a minor-league park with 5,000 or an (instructional league) game where there were three – that's three people, not 3,000.''
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