Travis certain he’ll be back soon
Shoulder issues sidelined infielder over parts of the last two seasons
Believed to be day-to-day at this point, Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis admits he thought it could be much worse when he felt pain in his surgically repaired shoulder.
Lifted from Monday night’s loss to the New York Yankees after the fifth inning, Travis hurt his shoulder pushing and shoving the second time the benches cleared in the second inning.
He again felt a twinge when he struck out in the fourth inning.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, that flashback,” Travis said Tuesday.
“It’s that scare factor. Tough process for me and to have any flashbacks (of the last injury) … just to know that something’s there again is a little concerning, but the fact that I feel better today than yesterday is encouraging, for sure.”
While he knows he tweaked it during the brouhaha, the 25-yearold from West Palm Beach, Fla., who leads the club with 79 hits and a .321 average since the allstar break, isn’t sure exactly what happened.
“I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t even know what happened,” Travis said.
“I didn’t even have any acute pain when I first got out of the scrum — adrenalin was high. I walked up my next at-bat, took a swing and it was there, so it definitely happened in that scrum.”
Travis received treatment on the shoulder following the 7-5 loss Monday night, and was held out of baseball activities on Tuesday, with Darwin Barney holding down second base in the opener of a big three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.
Travis first injured the shoulder in May 2015 and missed five weeks before returning, only to be sidelined again in late July for the remainder of the 2015 season.
He had off-season surgery which kept him out of spring training and he didn’t return to the Jays until May 25, missing the first 47 games of this season.
“There are six games left — hoping I can be out there tomorrow,” Travis said.
“I actually feel better today than yesterday, yeah. I was pretty scared last night. It wasn’t a fun injury to go through and to have any flashbacks of it is not good. I can move my arm today though, so, definitely I feel better today.
“I believe that I’ll be OK. I feel better than yesterday and I can move my arm. We’ve got six games left and the post-season, hopefully, so I’ll be in there. Somehow, someway, I’ll be in there.”