Travis putting up solid numbers now
Jays second baseman is doubling up on extra-base hits to compensate for a slow April
TORONTO — It’s the same in just about every stadium in Major League Baseball: Step up to the plate, look up and the big screen scoreboard reveals all.
For Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis, it was difficult to stomach for much of the first month of the season, especially when the first digit beside the decimal on his batting average was a zero.
“It’s bold, man, and it’s right there staring at you,” Travis said.
“It was tough — I wouldn’t say tough to believe that it was going to come around, it was just tough in the sense of walking to the plate and looking at the scoreboard, seeing what you’re hitting and knowing that you’re not helping the team win offensively.”
The glare is a little less now as Travis has been a valuable bat in the Jays’ offensive resurgence.
That attack is about to get another major boost when third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki return to the lineup for a three-game weekend series against the Texas Rangers.
After an April to forget, Travis’s bat has come alive with 14 doubles in his last 20 contests and an American League-best 16 extra-base hits in May. And there’s more: His average has ascended to .238 and he has a nine-game hitting streak going.
With all that action, a healthy Travis has become a key weapon at the top of the order, hitting right behind red-hot Kevin Pillar. So, what has changed? “I think it’s a combination of things. Confidence is one, and with success comes even more confidence,” Blue Jays hitting coach Brook Jacoby said. “But prior to the streak he’s in now, he was hitting the ball good. He wasn’t having any luck.
“To his credit, he stayed after it, kept his head above water and turned it around. He’s always hit, so it was just a matter of time.”
It was a slow spring for Travis, 26, as he missed the first handful of weeks of Grapefruit League action while recovering from a knee injury. When the hits weren’t coming early in the real games, he leaned on his teammates for support. Now that he’s producing consistently and with authority, Travis is benefiting from a real positive mindset rather.
“You’re always a little more confident when you’re going well. It’s the biggest thing in this game,” said Travis, who ended April batting a meagre .130.
“What the good ones do that I see, when they’re going good or bad, they still believe. They still walk up to the plate with that thought process that the pitcher fears them more than they fear the pitcher. If there’s one thing I learned throughout this process, you’ve got to keep that fire.”
At five foot nine and 190 pounds, Travis doesn’t have the classic slugger’s build, but don’t let that fool you. After just three extra-base hits in April, he hit two out of the park in the past three games, plus the glut of doubles.
“He’s got some power. He can drive the baseball,” Jacoby said. “He’s got some whip in there for a smaller guy.”
Travis is just one of the keys in the Jays offence — an act he’s seen before. The hope is that continues through the 10-game homestand that begins Friday.
“I definitely think that this is an offence that is contagious,” Travis said. “Hitting’s contagious. We feed off one another and we’re all just looking forward to keeping that going.”