YOUNG JAYS FALTER
Rookies Pompey, Norris struggle in 5-2 loss to Braves.
Dalton Pompey admitted he’s playing fearful. Daniel Norris admitted he’s playing numb.
Six months from now, a year from now, the two rookies might not make such public revelations. Somebody will get to them and say you can’t be so honest, so stripped down to naked truths. Stay secret.
Not there yet, though. So, on a day when inexperience showed itself on the field for Toronto, these two raw Blue Jays hid nothing.
It was Pompey who misplayed a fly ball in the first inning Sunday against Atlanta. Not an error, on the books, but a ball he should have handled without disastrous consequences — three runs scoring, the Braves off to the races in a 5-2 win, taking two out of three in their weekend series as Toronto fell back below .500.
The bases were loaded, two out, when Pompey got twisted around on a sharply hit liner by Jonny Gomes. Ball flicked off the tip of his glove for a three-RBI double.
“It was a low line drive and those are the toughest for any outfielder,” Pompey said afterwards. “You kind of just freeze because I don’t know if it’s in or back. It’s probably my mistake too. I should have been playing deeper in that situation but I wasn’t. I went back and the ball was hit directly over my head. I broke to the right instead of maybe to my glove side.’’
Manager John Gibbons assessed it without taking any edge off his 22-yearold fielder’s miscue.
“I definitely think it was a catchable ball. I think he just turned at the last second, tried to square up to it. When you’re on the move and running latterly, you start turning back, that ball’s just sailing along and you’re not quite as quick.’’ But then cut the kid some slack. “In the future, he’ll make that play.” That’s the thing: Accepting the risks with a half dozen scrubs on the roster, all of whom looked so poised and baseball mature in spring training. They’re not really anywhere near seasoned yet.
They will screw up.
“It’s really tough,” a subdued Pompey told reporters. “I’m trying to come here and make a difference on this team. I found ever since the season started, I’ve been playing somewhat scared, just because I don’t want to make a mistake. Take a situation like that, where I couldn’t bail out my pitcher. I’ve made plays for him many times in the past. This time I didn’t step up to the plate. It just shows me I need to be more aggressive. If I make mistakes being aggressive, then it won’t be so bad.”
That mini exposition came only after Pompey had offered a forelock tugging mea culpa.
“First and foremost I just want to apologize to my teammates and my fans, coaching staff. We lose that game because I don’t make that play and I take full responsibility for that.”
On an afternoon he would rather forget — though doubtless would be chewing on it, worrying it overnight — Pompey also drew an error on a poor throw to third a couple of innings later that got away from Josh Donaldson and rolled away from Norris backing up the play.
The shell-shocked dejection on the faces of Daniel Norris and Dalton Pompey in the Blue Jays’ dugout Sunday afternoon — caught by Sportsnet’s cameras in the middle of the third inning — said all there was to say about the Jays’ sloppy 5-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
The club’s rookies, ages 21 and 22, respectively, were the main culprits in the defeat and wore it in their deflated expressions. The two highly touted prospects offer plenty to dream on, but Sunday’s game was a shot of big-league reality and could be a harbinger of things to come for a club whose roster is nearly a quarter filled by first-year players.
Here are five bad signs for the Jays from Sunday’s game:
NORRIS’S ‘DEAD ARM’
The Jays lefty has had a lacklustre start to the season, and Sunday was the worst outing of his young career. He battled his command all game long, throwing just half of his 66 pitches for strikes. When he was in the zone, the Braves hit his pitches.
Norris admitted afterward said he has been going through a “dead-arm phase” since the Jays’ exhibition series in Montreal two weeks ago. Dead arm is not an injury — there is no pain, no structural damage to the arm and no inflammation — but it can result from fatigue. It typically doesn’t affect a pitcher’s velocity, but it does mute the “life” and movement on their pitches, which is what Norris said was happening. He said his pitches aren’t “coming out” like they usually do. There is no remedy for dead arm other than time. Based on past experience, Norris said he should be at the “tail end” of it.
If the Jays hope to stem their earlyseason slide, they better hope he is.
POMPEY’S GAFFES
The 22-year-old from Mississauga showed every bit his age and inexperience on a pair of defensive miscues in the first and third innings on Sunday, which led directly or indirectly to all five of the Braves’ runs. He misread a Jonny Gomes line drive, turning himself around and falling backward as the ball sailed over his head, allowing three runs to score. Two innings later, he airmailed a throw to third trying to nab the lead runner, who scored on the error, which also facilitated the Braves’ next run on a sacrifice fly.
Pompey is also hitting just .188 through the first two weeks of the season and with Michael Saunders expected to return from injury later this month, could soon face the prospect of a demotion to Buffalo.
BULLPEN BEATING
starting pitchers have averaged just 51⁄3 innings per start this season. R.A. Dickey is the only one who has managed to pitch into the seventh inning. The early toll on the Jays’ bullpen has been substantial, and the team’s relievers rank among the league’s top five in terms of innings pitched.
It’s not a sustainable load and it led to Sunday’s decision to promote veteran lefty Jeff Francis from Buffalo. The 34-year-old became the 22nd Canadian to ever play for Toronto, throwing 31⁄3 scoreless innings in his Toronto debut.
“He really saved our bullpen because we were pretty short down there,” manager John Gibbons said.
RUSSELL MARTIN’S KS
Every discussion of statistics at this time of year requires a “small sample!” caveat, but Russell Martin’s strikeout rate merits some concern, even at this stage.
The 32-year-old catcher struck out another three times Sunday, raising his K rate to 31.8 per cent, which is twice his career rate and highest among Jays hitters. That level of whiffage might be acceptable from a home-run hitter, but Martin is supposed to be a consistent on-base threat. It should be noted that his first two weeks in Pittsburgh in 2013 — the last time he was tasked with learning a whole new pitching staff — were equally unspectacular. He hit just .086 and had a .200 on-base percentage. But even then, his strikeout rate wasn’t out of whack like it is now. That said, Martin threw out another two base runners on Sunday — his caught-stealing rate is now a stellar 44 per cent — and also drove in the Jays’ only two runs. So maybe he’s not the one the team should be worried about.
DEVON TRAVIS’S INJURY
With Jose Reyes already out of the lineup with a cracked rib, the Jays lost their other starting middle infielder in the first inning Sunday when Travis left the game after being hit by a pitch. X-rays were negative, however, and Gibbons is hopeful Travis — who leads the Jays with a .356 batting average and had assumed Reyes’s leadoff spot in the order — will be able to return to the lineup Tuesday against the Orioles. The same goes for Reyes, who the Jays expect to also be well enough to return Tuesday. If they don’t heal as quickly as the Jays hope, their absence would be a significant loss on both sides of the ball.