Blue Jays rookie Devon Travis made sure his first MLB game would be a memorable one on opening day.
Opening day was always going to be special for rookie second baseman Devon Travis. Hitting a homer in a win made it even better
The Travis family posse spent Easter Sunday doing the grand tour of New York City. On Monday, their boy Devon reported for work, stepped into the sunshine and spent all of 15 seconds surveying his environs before retreating indoors.
It didn’t seem right to stay longer unless his teammates were with him.
“Just went on the top step of the dugout, looked at the entire stadium and said, ‘I’m going to go back in and come back when the entire team comes out,’ “the Toronto Blue Jays rookie said. “It’s just exciting, man. Dream come true.”
It came true in a glorious fashion in Yankee Stadium on a bright, cool opening-day afternoon with 48,469 fans on hand. The partisan gathering was generally subdued, no more so than in the seventh inning, when Devon Travis collected his first big-league hit.
Not just any hit. This one landed in the seats beyond the left-field scoreboard, gave the Jays a 6-1 lead and forever locked the name of Yankees left-hander Chasen Shreve in Travis’s mind.
Travis’s homer also locked in the final score. Jays starter Drew Hutchison allowed one run over six innings and Edwin Encarnacion hit a tworun homer to cap a five-run rally in the third.
Amid the partisan crowd were a few Toronto fans, of course, including about 20 just in from West Palm Beach, Fla., where Travis was born and raised. When his hit landed in the seats, most of the crowd emitted a collective groan. The Travis family posse was delirious.
“Mom, dad, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, a couple of my best friends, god-brother, god-sister — about 15 people,” Travis said. “It’s been pretty awesome. To have all your family come up, that’s a lot of travel, so I’m really thankful.”
The previous day, the clan boarded a boat for a tour around Manhattan. They visited the National September 11 Memorial and Times Square. “Basically, we ran through the whole city,” Travis said.
Then came the big day. Travis, 24, had played his previous professional game last year for the Erie SeaWolves, the Detroit Tigers’ Double-A team. Traded to Toronto for Anthony Gose, he won a starting job in spring training. On Monday, he looked very much like he belonged.
Facing Masahiro Tanaka in his first at-bat, his nerves were tingling.
“My heart’s racing faster than it ever has in my life,” he said, displaying a smile that became familiar in the springtraining clubhouse over the past two months.
Despite his anxiety, he drew a walk on a 3-1 pitch and scored during the Jays’ big surge in the third. He finished the day 1-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout, and took care of four plays on defence.
On the home run, Travis ran the bases as if legging out a triple.
“I don’t hit enough [homers] to know they’re gone when I hit ‘ em. I’m not going to break stride or slow down,” he said.
Besides, he said, “I had no idea where the ball even landed. I never looked to see what area it landed at. I rounded first base, heard the crowd scream, heard the crowd get quiet. I guess that meant I got it.”
After going 0-for-11 to start the exhibition season, Travis heeded the advice of his veteran teammates — relax and have fun, they said — and managed to shed the albatross. He wound up leading the team with 23 hits in exhibition play and batted .359.
“He’s got a great eye,” manager John Gibbons observed. “He’s very disciplined, small strike zone, little guy [5-foot-9]. He did it all spring. He waited on them and got pitches to hit all spring. That’s where he did his damage.”
In the visitors’ clubhouse before the game, Travis tried to find the words to describe his feelings.
I don’t hit enough (homers) to know they’re gone when I hit ’em
He began with “anxious.” Then he admitted that adjective fell short.
“A ton of feelings,” he said. “But just having the veteran guys around here, knowing that everyone in here has been through this day at one point in their career, it definitely gives me a little bit of a chance to relax and just kind of go about my business.
“I grew up watching a lot of these guys play in the big leagues for years. And walking into the clubhouse in spring training as a younger guy, it’s a little nerve-racking at first. But literally every single guy has been so great. It’s really been all I could ask for.”
And it is why, when Travis stole his first look at the famous baseball venue in the Bronx on Monday morning, he quickly withdrew. He is part of something bigger, and that notion — so important to the conscience of the revamped Blue Jays — is at the root of his gratitude.