Jays’ Travis pained to be out with sore ring finger

The one-game absence turned into two on Wednesday night, but Devon Travis is optimistic it won’t get beyond that.

The Blue Jays second baseman remained out of the lineup a second consecutive night after having a cortisone shot just below the knuckle of his ring finger on his throwing hand.

“I have no idea how it happened. It is something I felt and it was getting a little worse every day,” Travis said.

The cortisone shot he got Sunday when the team got back from the road trip is slowly improving things, however.

As far as Travis can figure, he first hurt the digit in New York but he’s not sure exactly when.

Travis doesn’t feel it when he’s throwing the ball, but he does while swinging the bat and not feeling some discomfort was impossible, although he admits he hasn’t swung a bat since he had the cortisone shot.

“It just got to the point where I hadn’t been saying anything and then it was bothering me enough that I felt I had to go in (the trainer’s room) and get a little treatment to get some help.”

Worse than anything for Travis is the feeling of frustration in having to sit out at a pivotal point in the season.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “The fact that I can’t even tell myself how it happened makes it even more frustrating. We got 30-something games left in a pennant race. I need to be in there for my teammates and it just sucks that I can’t.”

For the second night in a row, Darwin Barney replaced Travis in the lineup, both at second base and in the leadoff spot. In a year when the Blue Jays bullpen has had more than its share of woes, there is one man who has prospered in part because of those woes.

Rule V right-hander Joe Biagini likely doesn’t get the opportunities he has had if the Jays aren’t searching for answers in the bullpen this year. To his credit, when called upon, Biagini has delivered.

As manager John Gibbons pointed out, just being able to keep a Rule V guy on the roster of a team contending for a division title is rare. Normally that spot would be needed and Biagini would have already been offered back to the Giants from which he was drafted as a Rule V pick for a US$25,000 fee.

But the 6-foot-4 righty with the dry sense of humour has not only answered the call, he went into Wednesday’s game as one of the hottest arms in the pen. Since he last gave up a run on July 5, Biagiani has taken the mound 15 times and tossed 19 2/3 scoreless innings.

During that span, he has struck out 18 and walked just two while allowing 14 hits.

Manager John Gibbons says he is at the point when there’s not a Tim Tebow, the one-time Denver Broncos quarterback and Florida Gators legend, will spend Tuesday showing his baseball skills to a number of Major League baseball teams, including the Jays.

Gibbons said he has been told Tebow has a lightning-quick bat but still considers the whole thing more of a public relations stunt.

“I’m sure someone will give him a shot just because of who he is,” Gibbons said. “You never know, the odds are against him because of the stage of his life he’s at (29 years old with no amateur playing record).”