DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays came back home and couldn’t handle a split-squad of Detroit Tigers, losing a one-run affair to fall to 1-5 on the spring. The visitors broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run rally in the top of the seventh off Dominic Leone, who allowed three singles. A Josh Palacios error factored in as well.
Here are three things that stood out about the game:
WORTH THE WAIT
Dalton Pompey finally made his first appearance of the spring on Wednesday, after being listed as available for several games but being a late scratch each time because he was fighting a cold. Eyebrows were beginning to be raised in some quarters about his absence but doubts about his health were erased when he entered the game in the fifth inning as a defensive replacement for left fielder Melvin Upton, Jr.
Pompey was tested right away, as Andrew Romine hit a fly ball that the wind carried over his head, but ended up getting chased down. The switch-hitter worked a two-out walk in the bottom of the frame, and next came to the plate in the 7th, after having shifted over to centre field.
Facing Edward Mujica, a 10-year major-league veteran with 50 saves to his credit, Pompey went oppo taco, as they say. A home run into the trees in left field. He was on deck when the game ended.
GENEROUS HOSTS
The Blue Jays made some key mistakes on defence that wound up costing them badly in the loss, the first of which won’t show up on the boxscore.
With a runner on first and two out in the top of the sixth, Tigers catcher James McCann hit a looping liner that twisted away from Darrell Ceciliani as he chased it towards the foul line in right field. Ceciliani picked up the ball and came up throwing, but his throw was in to second base as the lead runner, JaCoby Jones, was speeding around third and heading home.
To his credit, shortstop Richard Urena took the throw at the second-base bag and made a good, strong throw home, but it was too late to get Jones. Ceciliani throwing to the wrong base cost the Jays a run. He did make up for it in the bottom of the inning, though, driving in a run with a double.
The next big miscue came in the seventh, after the Jays had tied the game. Again there was a runner on first and again there was a hit to right field, but this time Palacios was manning the position.
As opposed to McCann’s twisting liner, this was a routine line-drive single off the bat of Detroit third baseman Zach Cox. Palacios prepared to take the ball on its first bounce, but it skipped past him towards the wall, allowing the runner to score and Cox to take second. Two batters later, Cox scored on a ground-ball single to centre.
A TALE OF TWO SMITHS
The Blue Jays have two right-handed relievers named Smith in camp – Chris and Joe – and each one saw his first action of the spring on Wednesday.
Joe, a free agent signee who played with the Angels and Cubs last season, and who is going to be a big piece in the Blue Jays’ bullpen this season, pitched the second inning and got roughed up.
The side-armer gave up a loud leadoff double to Steven Moya, then, after a groundout, allowed a seeing-eye double just inside the third-base bag to McCann. A strikeout later, Dixon Machado singled to left to score McCann, who beat a weaker-than-expected throw home by Upton, Jr., Smith then got Brendan Ryan to ground out to end the inning.
Chris – a hard-throwing righty who had a great 2016 in New Hampshire and Buffalo, and who has had a lot of people gushing over him this spring – threw a hitless top of the fourth. He got Jones to ground out, hit McCann in the left shoulder with a two-strike pitch, then struck out Efren Navarro with McCann running, which Russell Martin turned into a double play by erasing McCann at second base.
There’s likely only to be one Smith breaking camp with the Blue Jays to start the season, but there’s a very good chance that Chris will join Joe in the big-league bullpen at some point this year.
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The Blue Jays will look again for their second win of the spring as they host the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday afternoon at The FAES. J.A. Happ gets his first action, facing the team that drafted him and for which he pitched in the 2009 World Series.
Ben Nicholson-Smith and Mike Wilner will have the call on the world wide web starting at 1:00 p.m. ET, with Martin scheduled to join the two in the booth for a couple of innings.
Listen here once you sign up for the mlb.com audio package – it’s free for spring!