TORONTO – Dalton Pompey will not start Tuesday’s wild-card game against the Baltimore Orioles. He won’t pinch-hit to gain a platoon advantage; he won’t be brought out on deck to try to force a pitching move from Buck Showalter; and unless something catastrophic happens, he won’t be a defensive replacement. No, he’ll do something much, much more intense.
If the game is close in the late innings, and the Toronto Blue Jays get a runner on base against the Orioles bullpen, Pompey will take that base runner’s place and be asked to create a run all on his own. For Tuesday night’s wild-card game, and likely for the rest of the post-season should the Blue Jays advance, Pompey will be the team’s late-game base running specialist. It’s the most unique role on the team.
“It’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy,” Pompey says, laughing as he leaned back in the Blue Jays dugout Monday afternoon. “When I come into a game, it’s always such an intense moment. Everything’s on the line. You’re there on the bench for the whole game, but there’s no easing into it. It just goes zero to 100. But you live for those moments. Those are moments you’re never going to forget. There’s just nothing like it.”
It’s a role Pompey began to play around this time last year, at the end of a tumultuous 2015 season that began with the Mississauga native serving as the Blue Jays starting centre fielder and went south from there. Pompey was demoted to triple-A a month into the season, then dropped to double-A a month after that before fighting his way back up to Buffalo later in the year and eventually rejoining the Blue Jays in September. At that point, Pompey’s role had changed dramatically from an everyday outfielder to a racehorse the club could call on to run wild in late-game situations.
He took to it well, pinch-running in three post-season games, including Game 2 of the ALDS, which he nearly turned on its head with two crucial steals in the 12th inning, and Game 6 of the ALCS, ending with Pompey stranded 90 feet from home after he again swiped both second and third.
This year – after spending the entire season in Buffalo where he hit .270/.349/.353 in 93 games – he’s been asked for more of the same. Take this past weekend in Boston, where he entered a tie game in the top of the ninth as a pinch-runner at first following a Michael Saunders walk. Pompey promptly advanced to second on a bunt, sprinted to third on a wild pitch, and scored the winning run on a medium-depth fly ball to left field.
If the Blue Jays don’t win that game, the Blue Jays aren’t hosting the Orioles Tuesday night. And you know that if a situation arises late in a close game against Baltimore, Pompey’s going to be running out of the dugout to try and create a run with his legs again.
“I’m happy to contribute in any game. But especially a game like Tuesday where there’s so much riding on it,” says Pompey, who grew up a short trip down the QEW from Rogers Centre. “Hopefully, I get to be a part of it and get to be in there. A lot of my friends and family, they’re super proud of me. And I couldn’t be happier to be here during this time.”
Pompey’s process starts long before the game, in the Blue Jays video room, where he will look over footage of the opposition’s relievers, trying to spot tendencies and cues he can use to his advantage. He hones in on certain counts, looking for spots where the pitchers favour their breaking balls, which are far easier to run on. He tries to isolate one movement, one tell that the pitchers gives every time they’re coming to the plate, so he can look for it in the game and know that’s his signal to go.
“If I can pick up that a certain guy leans back a little bit before he goes home, then that’s the only thing I’ll watch for from him on the mound. I don’t want to overthink things,” Pompey says. “You try to keep it simple so that you can also go off instinct. You don’t want too much stuff running through your head out there.”
Closer to first pitch, Pompey will work on his starts and run a few sprints in the outfield to make sure he’s loose and feeling fast. He knows he won’t be starting the game, so he can relax a bit in the early innings and encourage his teammates. But as the game wears on, he grows quieter and less animated as the tension builds.
He knows the players he’d be running for – Saunders, Russell Martin, Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista, among others – if they reached base, and as the game develops he begins to cast forward to circumstances that may arise. He starts stretching and getting loose, trying to remain ready to go in case a situation presents itself quickly. The hardest part is the nerves.
“It’s the anticipation nerves – they build and build and build,” Pompey says. “And then a guy gets on and I’m walking through the dugout to go run for them and everyone’s like, ‘come on, Pomp. Come on. Come on.’ I get super nervous, but then as soon as I run out there I just settle in and forget about that. I get to the base and I’m like, ‘alright, I know my job. I know what I’ve got to do.’”
It’s very difficult to steal a base in a spot like that, when everyone in the ballpark knows you’re looking to run. It takes thorough preparation and an ability to read a litany of in-game cues. It takes split-second decision-making and fast-twitch muscle fibres. It takes precise attention to detail. It takes guts.
“You have to have a real feel for the game. For the count, for who’s pitching, for who’s up, for what the catcher’s doing, for what pitches a guy’s throwing, for everything,” Pompey says. “It’s pretty stressful because I know my run’s pretty important and there’s a lot of risk involved with trying to steal in those situations. There’s so much riding on it, but that just drives me to want to take that base even more – and eventually cross the plate.”
In this, his second post-season with the Blue Jays, Pompey says he’s feeling much more relaxed than he did in 2015, when he bounced from level to level of the organization, never truly finding a home.
“This year has been way, way easier. I definitely feel way more comfortable. I feel like I’m part of the team now,” Pompey says. “I feel like I know the guys, and they include me in things and we have conversations. I just feel like they’ve accepted me, and that goes a long way for any young guy coming up because you just want to earn the trust of your teammates, and you want to feel like part of the team. And I finally feel like that.”
Pompey’s certainly part of the team, and probably its most unique aspect considering the situations he’ll be asked to perform in. Unless the wild-card game ends up being a blow out, there’s little chance Pompey will enter the game in anything but a high-leverage spot.
If he’s running out to first or second base Tuesday night, he’s being asked to move up 90 feet without contact, or to throw a pitcher off his game at a critical moment, or to score a run that could decide the ballgame. Pompey can’t wait.
“You just want to make your mark. That’s honestly what I think about out there,” Pompey says. “I just want people to remember the moment. People remember what happened against Texas and in K.C. So, hopefully I can make some more memories Tuesday night.”
