Regular duty key to Davis’s improved play

‘When you sow bountifully you reap bountifully’

BOSTON • This is the gospel according to Rajai Davis.

“When you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly,” he said. “When you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully.”

With that touch of the biblical, Davis happily summarized a particularly bountiful period in his career as a Toronto Blue Jay.

He was sowing, and playing, sparingly in April. In May, he earned more playing time, gradually taking over as the regular left-fielder, and with that came the bounty.

Since he started playing every day on May 12, Davis raised his batting average from .188 to .273 (not including Thursday’s action). During that 37-game span, he hit .297 with a .345 on-base percentage and 14 stolen bases.

It is one key reason the Blue Jays seem in no rush to promote fan favourite Travis Snider from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Davis came to Toronto last year after two bountiful years in Oakland, where he batted .293 and stole 91 bases. But in his first year as a Blue Jay, he hit only .238. He did steal 34 bases but his on-base percentage was only .273.

He says his success depends on playing regularly. He talks about “positive preparation,” which is easier, he says, when he can get into a daily groove.

“My preparation is all mental,” he said. And over the past month or so, he has nurtured a sharper sense of possibility at the plate, knowing a hitless game would not send him to the bench the next night.

Of his approach to each atbat, he said: “I know I’m going to get a hit. If I don’t, I know I’m going to get a hit my next time up.”

There is a certain absurdity in that notion, of course, but as manager John Farrell observed with respect to Davis, “confidence is a huge thing.”

In recent play, Davis has shown signs of better plate discipline, curbing a longtime habit of diving for pitches outside the strike zone. For the season, however, he still remains the Blue Jays’ wildest swinger and one of the wildest in the American League.

According to figures compiled by Fangraphs.com, when Davis sees a pitch outside the strike zone, he swings 40.6% of the time. That puts him fourth among AL players with at least 150 plate appearances, behind Josh Hamilton, Delmon Young and Jeff Francoeur.

While Davis is hardly a textbook example of plate discipline, Farrell has noticed a change.

“If he doesn’t get his pitch early in the count, he’s not expanding the strike zone to chase,” Farrell said. “He’s done an excellent job of understanding the pitcher he’s facing and … taking what opposing pitchers are giving him.”

That is also reflected in his 7.7% walk rate, which puts him on pace for his best season in that regard since 2007. As walk rates go, it is unspectacular, but last year it was a meagre 4.4%. (He drew only 15 walks last season; entering play Thursday, he had 12.)

Davis has remarkable speed, and as he has moved through four teams, coaches have always fantasized about him as a prototypical leadoff man. But he always has struck out too often, taken too few walks and logged an on-base percentage (.320 career mark) well below the .350-plus required for the job.

He had a strong year (.305 average, .360 on-base mark) for Oakland in 2010, but has not come close those numbers before or since. Farrell has kept him in the seventh or eighth spot in the order and is generally pleased with the results so far.

“I think he shows a very good game awareness and usually that’s the case when guys are more confident,” Farrell said.

Once Davis gets on base, the Jays certainly have no complaints. He has stolen 17 bases and is eight-for-eight when he goes for third. And when it is possible to take more than one base on a teammate’s single or more than two bases on a double, he does so 73% of the time.

His challenge is to keep it up. Last year, Davis had a solid stretch in April and May, then tailed off. When a hamstring injury ended his season Aug. 15, he had batted .189 in his previous 56 games 6 while playing almost every day.

But so far this year, Davis has made good on his claim that daily duty agrees with him. And so far, the Blue Jays are happy with the bounty.