Lugnuts' Norris finishing up strong

If there was any doubt that Daniel Norris has been a different pitcher over the second half of the season, he provided ample evidence on Tuesday night.

The Blue Jays' No. 4 prospect gave up two hits and struck out four over a career-high six innings as Class A Lansing blanked Lake County, 6-0.

While he did not figure in the decision, Norris walked one and faced just one batter over the minimum in his 21st start for the Lugnuts. He recorded 10 outs on ground balls and induced two double plays.

"First things first, I had to establish my fastball. That was the main thing," Norris said. "First two or three innings, I would get ahead with my fastball and I like to put a guy away with the off-speed. My catcher keep calling fastball and I'd shake him off and he'd keep putting it down and I would go with that. "

"I walked off the field in the third and asked him, 'Hey why can't we go to the off-speed to put them away?' And he was like, 'You gotta talk to your coaches about that.' I think they wanted me to work on fastball command late in the count, but later on I started to use my off-speed a lot."

Norris had never gone more than five innings in a start since the Blue Jays selected him in the second round of the 2011 Draft. Limited to 65 pitches per outing for much of the season, he recently moved up to 80.

"I'm very happy about getting into the sixth, that's big for me," Norris said. "I want to work deep into games and give my team a chance to win, that's my main focus. That was kind of the goal for me, to get deeper into games."

The 20-year-old left-hander has shown marked improvement since the Midwest League All-Star break, going 1-3 with a 2.45 ERA in his last nine starts. Over 37 2/3 innings, he's recorded 47 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .226 average. In the first half, Norris was 0-4 with a 5.80 ERA in 13 games.

"I go out there with a lot more intensity and aggression," Norris said. "I'm attacking hitters differently, just being the old pitcher that I was. Me and [pitching coach] Vince Horsman have worked hard every single day.

"Earlier in the year, I was struggling a bit. I was up in the zone. I wasn't focusing on command. It's just night and day from April to now. Now I have a thought process to what I do, and it's just a lot more fun than just aimlessly throwing fastballs up in the zone."

Overall, Norris is 1-7 with a 4.30 ERA in 22 appearances.

Javier Avendano (8-6) came on in the seventh and fanned four over three hitless innings to get the win.

Carlos Ramirez plated a pair of runs and Chris Hawkins was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI for the Lugnuts. Blue Jays No. 15 prospect Dalton Pompey reached base three times, stole his 36th base and scored a run.