Order restored in win over Rangers
The hurting Blue Jays eagerly welcomed back MVP third baseman Josh Donaldson and Gold Glove shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on Friday — and went on to beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 in the opener of a three-game series — but make no mistake. The man currently driving the Jays’ offensive bus is still resurgent right fielder Jose Bautista.
Bautista was hitting .314 in his last 24 games heading into Friday with seven homers, 17 RBIs and a 1.055 on-base plus slugging mark. Three of those home runs put the Jays ahead and one other tied a game. Even though Justin Smoak, Kendrys Morales, Devon Travis — who launched a grand slam in the victory — and Kevin Pillar have contributed, the turnaround has seemed to go hand-inhand with Bautista’s rebound.
But now, with Donaldson and Tulowitzki healthy, one can honestly say that the cavalry has arrived. No longer does manager John Gibbons feel that he needs to bunt, steal, hit-and-run and play small ball searching for key runs late in games.
“We probably bunted a little more than the way I like to,” Gibbons admitted. “We tried some things over the past few weeks. You won’t see much of that anymore. (Ezequiel) Carrera, we’re still going to do it. That’s kind of his game. Other than that, I don’t think we’ll start stealing more bags either. I don’t think that’s changed.”
The hallmark of the Jays batting order ever since the trade deadline in 2015, through back-to-back trips to the postseason, has been a relentless offence — a lineup that keeps coming after oppo- nents, at least one through eight in the batting order.
For the first time in 2017 that seems to be the case vs. the Rangers.
“That’s what we’re capable of doing,” Bautista began. “Even though we have the bodies back, we need them to get acquainted, back to being in the lineup and playing at this level. Obviously both of those guys are extremely capable, but any time after you have a stint on the DL and you’re missing some games, there’s a period of adjustment. Hopefully it’s a very short one, or non-existent for them, and they can start contributing right away.”
It’s really hard to say who has been the leader in terms of the Jays’ rebound while their two star players have been out.
They have gone from the worst start in franchise history to just one game behind the pace of a year ago, after the season had started so disastrously.
Morales and Smoak have been the most consistent hitters all year, with Pillar taking nicely to the leadoff spot when moved up.
Travis has heated up in the last couple of weeks and been an extrabase machine — he also rapped out his 15th double of May on Friday night. But it has to be more than coincidence that the rebound and Bautista’s own comeback began simultaneously. Does the right fielder feel the returning players can ride the recent positive momentum?
“Both success and failure are contagious, so hopefully we just stay on the success side more than the failure side,” Bautista said. “But for the most part, this team is built with a bunch of established people. There’s not a bunch of rookies without experience here, so we all know what we need to do on a daily basis to get the wins, which is the only thing that matters.
“Stats and personal achievements and all that stuff, I think will take care of themselves as individuals if we just focus on winning games, and that’s the mentality overall from the group. That’s what we’re focused on doing, is winning ball games, because we want to be back in the playoffs.”
The Rangers became just the 11th out of 20 teams the Jays are scheduled to play in 2017. Some would suggest that it’s too early to know how good the Jays are as a team, that until they have played everyone at least once it’s impossible to really know where they stand.
“No, I think we know what we can do regardless of the opponent,” Bautista said, strongly disagreeing. “It’s just about being healthy, all of us playing together — create situations and execute. You’re going to have your good days, you’re going to have your bad days, but for the most part you look for the consistency in the bulk of the games and we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”
Bautista refused to talk about the perception around baseball that he’s a bat-flipping, showboating hot dog — which is, in reality, an inaccurate portrayal.
He was also asked if the fact that the Jays have defeated the Rangers in consecutive American League Division Series with all the fireworks that have surrounded the Jays and Rangers games the past two seasons, whether, outside of the AL East, he would consider the Rangers a true rival.
“Nah, I mean, to be quite honest with you, we played a good series against them in the playoffs, but they’re just opponents in our eyes,” Bautista said.
“We don’t look at rivalries like most people do, I guess, fans and media. We just play against opponents. We don’t put more emphasis on any other opponent unless it’s already in the playoffs or a critical series in the season, and this is not critical by any means.”
At that point I moved slightly and subtly away from Bautista, just in case lightning was to strike under the roof of the Rogers Centre. The obvious truth is that these teams don’t like each other and are rivals.