Travis’s debut one to remember
OPENING DAY: Second baseman homers for first hit in front of family, friends
NEW YORK — 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 co-workers 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 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 in left field, 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 two-run homer to cap a five-run rally in the third.
Amid the partisan crowd were a few Toronto fans, of course, including a contingent 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 Sea-Wolves, 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.
He walked in his first at-bat and scored during the Jays’ big surge in the third against pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. He finished the day 1-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout, and took care of four plays on defence.
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.
In the visitors’ clubhouse before the game, Travis tried to find the words to describe his feelings. 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, 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.
GAME NOTES: Hutchison, the youngest opening-day starter in franchise history, allowed three hits and two walks, and struck out three … Twenty-year-old rookie Miguel Castro entered the game in the eighth inning with two outs and two runners on. For reasons evident only to himself, Didi Gregorius tried to steal third on Castro’s first pitch. Russell Martin threw him out. Castro finished his MLB debut with a perfect ninth, including a strikeout.