Donaldson throws down challenge to Jays’ hitters
While there are folks out there who would write off the Toronto Blue Jays, especially their offence, after just 14 per cent of the schedule is in the books, manager John Gibbons is hanging tough with his people.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll start clicking and everybody will get back to their norm,” said Gibbons before Friday’s opener of a three-game weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
“As far as confidence goes, they’ve all had success before but they’re human beings, too. They want to do well and they press like everybody else. The guys on this team who are struggling, they know they’re going to hit.”
After Wednesday’s 4-0 loss that completed a three-game sweep of Toronto by the Chicago White Sox, third baseman and reigning American League MVP Josh Donaldson suggested some Blue Jays need to look in the mirror for answers.
“I feel like we need to do a better job of being good hitters,” Donaldson told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “We need to re-evaluate some things and hopefully an offday does us some good.”
On Tuesday, lefty Chris Sale handled the Jays predominately right-handed lineup with ease. On Wednesday, lefty Jose Quintana duplicated Sale’s performance.
“I think some people need to evaluate their approach,” Donaldson said. “Chris Sale is Chris Sale, but we have a lot of big-time righthanded bats in this lineup that should be able to handle Quintana. He’s had a good start to the season so far, but it looked to me like he was throwing a lot of heaters, and I don’t believe there’s anybody who should be able to come through here and throw a lot of fastballs and have the kind of success he had against us.”
Gibbons has been preaching a “use the whole field” approach but it might be more effective when it comes from a guy like Donaldson, especially on a team with so many veteran hitters.
The Jays went into Friday’s game with 217 strikeouts in 23 games, averaging almost 10 per game.
“I talk to different guys all the time about these things but from a team standpoint, Josh has always been the spokesman. It’s nothing they haven’t heard from him as well,” Gibbons said.
“I expect those numbers to come down. We’re going to strike out because we’re kind of a slugging team but that’s a high number right now, high even for us.”