BIG BLAST
Blue Jays batter Cliff Pennington watches his fourth-inning shot clear the fence at Turner Field on Thursday night. The Jays wrapped up their 10-game road trip with a 5-0 victory.
ATLANTA— Sometimes it seems like Ryan Goins is just fooling around during batting practice, not taking his preparation seriously.
But as part of every Blue Jays pregame, he will practise in the field making the same outrageous plays that make highlight-of-the-night loops at all-sports networks.
In Game 2 of the Braves series, the versatile 27-year-old middle infielder made another of those jaw-dropping plays on a ground ball in the hole at short that just eluded a diving Josh Donaldson and ended up in Goins’s glove. Running full speed away from first base, he turned his body and launched a blind, accurate throw to a stretching Edwin Encarnacion.
The Braves’ Nick Markakis could only shake his head.
“Most of the time I’m just having fun with it, kind of messing around,” Goins said in describing his pre- game freestyle routine. “I’m serious on my first 25, and the last five I’ll just try to do stupid stuff. You’re not going to make those plays if you don’t practise it.”
Goins has been the Jays’ best defensive second baseman and the best defensive shortstop in the 113 games in which he’s played. He watched others, as he was growing up, who have inspired him.
“Not so much when I played against them the last couple of years, but when I was a little kid. (Derek) Jeter made those plays all the time and made it look easy,” Goins said. “(Alex Rodriguez) when he played short was unbelievable. Omar Vizquel, Robbie Alomar, those guys were some of the best to ever play the game. It’s more satisfying than getting hits. Saving runs is fun and helping those guys out any way that I can is just what I want to do.”
Jays manager John Gibbons has learned to appreciate defence and, in fact, is unable to say which aspect of his team this year has been most impressive — the hitting or the renewed glove-work.
“In the big leagues you’ve got to take away hits, too,” Gibbons said.
“It’s not always just good enough to make routine plays unless you’re just a big bopper or something. If you’re really known for your defence, you take away hits.”
There was the Goins play in the hole, plus a Ben Revere running catch onto the warning track in left. There was a Russell Martin slide, spin and throw play in the eighth and then there was the unusual double- play turned by Cliff Pennington, Goins and Josh Donaldson.
A Markakis flare with runners on first and second dropped safely to the ground off Pennington’s glove as he raced into right field. He picked it up, spun and fired a strike to Goins at second base for the force, who then spun with no hesitation and threw to Donaldson, who applied the tag to catcher Christian Bethancourt — and held it on him as he slid off the base and was called out. Double play.
“Knowing it was the catcher running, I kept peeking back at him to see where he was going to be,” Goins described. “And then when Penny dropped it, I felt him pretty close, so I knew if he got it to me quick, I could just throw and have a chance. I knew I could turn and throw and maybe put a tag on him.”
Sitting quietly in the next locker was pitcher David Price, who benefitted from all the defensive excellence. “Tell him who was yelling three, three, three,” Price smiled.
This Jays clubhouse is a tight group of players, largely because the team is doing so well, but a contributing factor to that is they genuinely seem to like each other.