Trying to stay upbeat amid lousy start
Players trying to remember there are still 150 games to turn this season around
The Toronto Blue Jays have started the season 2-10 but, surprisingly, the atmosphere inside the clubhouse is not as gloomy as you might think.
Before their game Sunday,
Josh Donaldson and Ryan Goins were tossing balls to one of their teammates’ young sons. And the kid was good. The players got a big laugh every time the diminutive dynamo smashed a ball with his little bat. Guys would stop by and watch, smile and shake their head.
Before Saturday’s tilt against the Baltimore Orioles, as manager John Gibbons held his daily media availability in his office, Marcus Stroman stuck his head in to say hello.
“All your friends are here,” Gibbons said to Stroman, who has had a bit of a prickly relationship with the media of late.
“We’re all good,” Stroman replied with a laugh.
So it’s not all gloom and doom at the Rogers Centre. And that’s not because the players don’t care. As second baseman Devon Travis put it: “We have (152) games left and I think that’s the biggest thing we’re telling ourselves. If this was a football season, we’d be 0-1.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Jays, though. They host divisional rival Boston Red
Sox for a three-game set beginning Tuesday at Rogers Centre before heading to California for a four-game set against the Angels beginning Friday.
The Jays also have two of their biggest stars on the disabled list — Donaldson (calf strain) and right-handed starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez (finger blister) — while reliever J.P. Howell is out with a shoulder strain and now last season 20-game winner J.A. Happ is down with soreness in his throwing elbow.
Sooner rather than later, the Jays have to get on a roll. This isn’t the American League Central. The longer they stay out of contention, the harder it will be to climb back into the race. There’s already talk they should start planning a rebuild.
Travis is typical of what’s happened to the Jays this season.
In spring training, Gibbons said he wouldn’t be surprised if the 26-year-old wins a batting title some day (if he can stay healthy). In 163 Major League games heading into this season, the West Palm Beach, Fla., native was hitting .301 with some pop in his bat (19 home runs). But this season, like most of his teammates, he’s struggling. In 38 at-bats (Gibbons has given Travis days off to rest his knee), he has four hits (.105) and no home runs.
Gibbons is hoping a long weekend off (Travis was given Saturday and Sunday off and Monday the club didn’t play) will give the infielder a fresh start. Travis laughed when asked if he felt Gibbons’ comments put unneeded pressure on him coming into the season.
“Honestly, good or bad, when things are said, I truly don’t get caught up with them. But I’m so thankful he said that. That’s really cool. I haven’t given up on that dream yet,” said Travis, who is amiable whether mired in a slump or on a hitting streak.
“But like I said, this is a tough game and it’s very humbling. That’s why during good times, I try never to get too high, and through the bad times, you can’t get too low. You’ve got to ride that middle wave because this game humbles you in a heartbeat for sure.”
Travis, who has a history of shoulder and knee issues, insisted that, physically, he feels fine and trusts in his routine to turn things around quickly.
“I think the biggest thing is trusting your eyes. We forget that our eyes are our biggest weapon,” he said. “You trust those eyes and you let your eyes tell you whether you’re swinging or you’re not, where you want to hit the ball.
“The biggest thing is when you get in slumps, you get locked up and you just want to swing, you just want to get the hit. If you’re going good, you have an approach and you go up there and you trust that approach.
“You have to understand, you can square the ball up 50 times in a row and get no hits and you can get jammed or cap the ball 50 times in a row and get 40 hits. (So) I’m just trying to stick with the approach and stay positive. That’s the biggest thing.”
Adds Travis, “You can’t feel bad for yourself in this game because the guy next to you has your back and you’ve got to know that. Every single day you wake up and you play again. You don’t have time to hang your head.”
“I’m starting to feel better and better,” he said. “I’m just trying not to get caught up in the numbers. You know when you’re struggling, everyone knows when you’re struggling. I’m just looking forward to breaking out of it and getting this thing rolling again.”
A look at the team’s offensive stats can be a depressing exercise for Jays fans.
Toronto sits near the bottom of the AL in most offensive categories, including OBP (14th, .280), home runs (14th, seven) and hits (13th, 85). Last season, the Jays were one of the top hitting clubs in baseball.
“It’s a crazy game,” Travis said. “I think these are just reminders for us just how hard this game truly is and you better embrace those good times and even the bad times, too. You gotta embrace it, you got to just continue to fight the good fight and not get caught up in what’s going on even though it’s really difficult not to.
“It’s easy to come in and hold your head down and feel bad for yourself because you’re struggling and the numbers on the scoreboard aren’t saying what you want,” Travis said. “
You’ve got to keep fighting and you can’t let your head start to hang low. Once that happens, you don’t go anywhere but further down.”
You have to understand, you can square the ball up 50 times in a row and get no hits and you can get jammed or cap the ball 50 times in a row and get 40 hits.