‘IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING’
After two injury-shortened years, Blue Jay Devon Travis is finally pain-free — and tearing the cover off the ball for the league lead in doubles.
BALTIMORE— For Blue Jay Devon Travis, recent success at the plate has been doubly sweet.
After hitting just .130 in April, the second baseman has been a doubles machine in May and, just as important, healthy after a long rehabilitation from a mysterious knee injury that knocked him out of the postseason last fall.
“This is sweet for sure, to be able to play every single day and play without pain,” he said before the Jays flew to Milwaukee for a two-game series starting Tuesday night. “Show up to the yard every day, and I can focus on baseball and not about how my knee’s feeling or if I’m going to make it through the day.
“It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m just so happy to be healthy and out here playing.”
It was Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers when Travis — who also missed most of the 2015 season with a shoulder injury — first hurt his right knee. He still doesn’t know how. He didn’t play again until the AL Championship Series opener against Cleveland, when he aggravated it again, ending his year.
Minor surgery in November repaired cartilage damage in the joint, but left a bone bruise to heal on its own. He was never right all through spring training, though, and was iffy to make the opening-day roster.
Nearly two months later, Travis says he’s at full strength, a huge weight off his shoulders.
Manager John Gibbons said recently that Travis lost weight during the injury layoff and that affected his start.
“He’s getting stronger again,” Gibbons said. “He lost a lot because of the knee. He’s starting to show signs of driving the ball.
“For two or three weeks (early in the season), everything he was hitting was on the ground. In the big leagues, if you hit ground balls you’re out, basically. So I see some good things.”
April was a month to forget for Tra- vis: 10-for-77 with four RBIs. The improvement in May has been like night and day.
In addition to improved health, Travis credits a minor adjustment — standing a bit farther from the plate — starting with a series against the New York Yankees. Since then, he’s had 24 hits — including 14 doubles — in 22 games, including 14 doubles.
His batting average for May sits at a lofty .369, while his on-base plus slugging mark has soared: 1.013 this month, .388 in April.
Through Sunday, Travis was tied for the league lead in doubles, with16, and with14 in May he’s one shy of the franchise record for a month — set by outfielder Fred Lewis in 2010.
For his part, Travis says he isn’t paying much attention to the numbers, but adds that he’s not sure if he has ever felt so good at the plate.
“I’m just trying to continue to take it day by day,” he said Sunday, after his three-run homer did all the damage in a 3-1 win over the Orioles. “I just want to help this team win — that’s the biggest thing. When you’re struggling and you’re not helping the team win too much, it makes it even harder to sleep at night, so I’m just happy to be helping the boys win games.”