Ten days after being promoted to Triple-A Syracuse, Camden’s Mike MacDonald was watching highlights of Tuesday’s game between Toronto and Baltimore with great interest.

Jesse Litsch, MacDonald’s teammate and a fellow pitcher with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, was making his major league debut with the Jays after being called up to start in place of injured starter Roy Halladay.

The irony wasn’t lost on MacDonald as he watched Litsch allow just four hits and one run in 8 2/3 innings to earn a win. MacDonald was promoted before Litsch, but Litsch reached the majors first by leapfrogging from Double-A.

“He played with me this year and a little bit last year,” MacDonald said. “I was glad to see him get the call. He’s been having a good season and it was great to see him get his first big league win last night.”

That isn’t just lip service being provided by MacDonald. He means it. He’s always glad to see former teammates succeed. Is he a bit jealous? Of course, but that just makes him want to work even harder than he already has.

“You’re always close. You just have to keep on developing the skills you have and trying to refine them while being consistent,” said MacDonald. “You can’t really worry about when you might get the call. You just have to keep going out and putting up numbers.”

For the most part, the former Camden-Rockport High School and University of Maine star has been churning out solid numbers since he was the 16th selection in the 15th round (447th overall) of the 2004 Major League Baseball first-year-player draft by the Blue Jays.

MacDonald spent all of the 2006 season with New Hampshire, going 13-9 in 28 starts with a 3.94 earned run average. He was 3-1 in five starts with a 2.51 ERA before the call-up. Before Wednesday night’s start against Indianapolis, he was 0-0 with a 5.73 ERA after allowing 14 hits, three walks and seven earned runs in 11 innings.

MacDonald said the biggest differences between Double-A and Triple-A involve travel.

“You get into more flight-oriented trips whereas in lower levels, it’s pretty much all buses,” he explained.

The 25-year-old righthander said aside from a slight raise in pay, nothing else has changed.

“No, your meal money stays the same,” he said with a laugh.

On the field, the quality of competition is better as opposing players are much more experienced, meaning MacDonald has much less margin for error.

“Hitters go up there with a plan. They’re looking for a pitch they want to hit. If they see it, they swing. If they don’t, they’re going to take pitches until they do,” MacDonald said. “When you throw a mistake here, 95 percent of the time they’ll make it hurt.”

MacDonald’s parents, Paul and Betsy, traveled to Syracuse, N.Y., to see MacDonald’s first Triple-A start, They have seen him pitch at least once at every level of the minors.

“I have great family support too. To me, that makes a big difference,” he said.

Former Camden-Rockport baseball coach Carlos “Chuck” Medrano, who now lives in Chicago, came all the way to Louisville, Ky., to see MacDonald’s second start.

“That was great,” said the 6-foot-1, 195-pound pitcher. “He’s a great guy. I was fortunate to have him as part of my career.”

Former big league pitcher Rick Langford is another part of his career. He originally worked with MacDonald in 2005 in the Florida State League. Now he’s MacDonald’s pitching coach at Syracuse.

“It’s nice to work with Rick again,” MacDonald said. “I’m a similar sinker-slider pitcher to what he is, so it’s nice to be able to pick his brain.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net