Maile focuses on positive despite tough loss
Backup catcher confident Jays will bounce back from disheartening defeat to Yanks
Blue Jays catcher Luke Maile had a front-row seat to the nightmare that was Jason Grilli’s four-home-run pounding in the eighth inning of the Blue Jays’ 7-0 loss to the Yankees Saturday afternoon.
Maile, highly respected in the clubhouse as a gifted backup catcher, felt there was a greater perspective to be had after the embarrassing result.
“We’re all pros, we all bounce back,” Maille said.
“It was difficult, a tough thing to watch. It’s a tough game, things get ugly sometimes. But he’s (Grilli) been through tough times before. He’ll bounce back to where he needs to be.”
Maile was actually one of the few bright spots for the Jays after the Yankees took a 2-1 lead in this fourgame series that wraps up Sunday.
Maile rapped out two singles off Yankees left-hander Jordan Montgomery, who was otherwise spot on, giving up three hits overall over his six shutout innings.
For Maile, the two hits off a lefthander marked was just another positive in how valuable he’s proven himself to be since he was picked up in early April off waivers from Tampa.
He had been 0-for-14 against lefties prior to Saturday’s game. But, in connecting twice off Montgomery, Maile also extended his hitting streak to four games, one shy of his career high, set last August.
Maile had been going through some tough times at the plate since he arrived with the Jays. His batting average was below .100 — it’s now up to .123 —which definitely reflected a struggle with the mental side of his approach at the plate.
Hitting coaches Brook Jacoby and Derek Shelton worked with Maile, getting him to stand more upright in his stance. The idea was to get him out of a tendency to crouch lower, and to allow more productivity and balance out of the lower half of his body.
Maile credited his coaches for the work they did with him but admits his struggles were largely mental.
“I’ve had help from everyone on this team,” Maile said.
“The struggles were excruciating for me, and it wasn’t so much mechanical as it was mental, just believing you can hit a baseball hard. I’m finding that again.”
Maile has also proved something of a saviour to the Jays, starting the last three games with No. 1 catcher Russ Martin sidelined with neck muscle issues.
Maile’s overall catching skills and his game-calling have prompted high praise from manager John Gibbons and the starting staff. Every Jays starter says they feel like they’ve been throwing to him for years, even though he’s been with the team for just two months.
“Luke Maile . . . I don’t know if you noticed, but he’s good,” Jays starter Joe Biagini said after a career-high, seven-inning100-pitch outing Saturday.
“He’s just in control of the game, he’s really smart. I thought only guys like Russ Martin were like that. But you see him, you look at his face, it’s like, he’s with you, like he’s saying, ‘I’m on it.’ It’s a luxury to have someone like that.
“He also has nice hair. I ask him to take his mask off when he comes out to talk to me (laughing). But he just seems like he’s one step ahead of the hitter and me. He makes the process so much simpler for a guy like me.
“Like I said, it’s quite a luxury to have someone like Luke, who cares so much.”