Jays’ bats come up big for strong pitching

Starter Laffey allows no runs in seven innings

Travis Snider says the anger is gone, along with the chip on his shoulder.

He realizes he is a lucky young man. Looking around at his older Triple-A teammates helped bring him to that conclusion.

Back in the big leagues for the fifth time, the Toronto Blue Jays’ outfielder spoke at length with reporters Friday about his metamorphosis before the Jays’ 6-1 win in Boston.

“I don’t want to walk around being angry at the world,” Snider said. “I’ve done that in my life, and that’s something I’ve had to work hard on to overcome and really just put myself in a position to wake up each and every day to be thankful for what I have.”

He was recalled from TripleA Las Vegas to replace Ben Francisco, who was part of the Jays’ 10-player deal with Houston made early Friday. Snider doubled, walked and scored a run in four plate appearances. He also made two nice defensive plays in left field behind starter Aaron Laffey, who blanked Boston on eight hits over seven innings.

Snider made his big-league debut as a 20-year-old in 2008. In each subsequent year he has tried to, and failed to, keep a big-league job.

Bouncing back and forth between the majors and minors took its toll, he said. But gradually, he began to realize he needed to focus on what he could control and to appreciate what he had.

“[I gained] that perspective from being around guys in Triple-A, who have a different situation in terms of how many years they’ve been playing, or having families and kids, and other things that they have to worry about, and really realizing how much I have to be thankful for,” he said.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos’s massive deal with Houston was meant to stabilize his pitching staff, but the Blue Jays enjoyed yet another strong start from Laffey, who spent the first 2½ months of the season at Triple-A.

Laffey scattered eight singles, walked none and struck out four in his longest start as a Blue Jay. He has pitched at least six innings in four of his five starts since joining the rotation June 13th.

Colby Rasmus tripled and scored in a two-run first inning and doubled home two runs in the second. Both hits came against Boston starter Josh Beckett, who settled down after that and pitched six innings.

Brett Lawrie, recovering from a right calf bruise, sat out the game. Yan Gomes, just up from Las Vegas, played third base in his place and had a ninth-inning double that scored Snider.

Beckett, who came in with a 10.20 ERA for the first inning, fell behind quickly once again. Rasmus hit a one-out triple and scored on a close play when Edwin Encarnacion hit a bouncer to third. Adam Lind and J.P. Arencibia followed with singles to bring home Encarnacion.