DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Blue Jays evened their spring training record at 2-2, beating the Orioles in the back half of a home-and-home.
With runners on first and second and nobody out in a tie game in the bottom of the eighth, Devon Travis hit a comebacker to the mound that Orioles’ pitcher Steve Johnson threw away, allowing the eventual winning run to score.
Here’s what I liked and didn’t like about the game.
THE GOOD
Dickey and Hutchison: Two-fifths of the Blue Jays’ starting rotation was on display Friday afternoon, and they both threw two hitless innings, allowing a walk each.
R.A. Dickey struck out three, which was three more than Drew Hutchison, and both of them were extremely effective in their first outings of the Grapefruit League season. It’s hard to have a better start to a pre-season than to go out, pitch your limit and not give up any hits.
Chris Colabello: He struck out three times in Bradenton on Wednesday, earning a mention in the “Less Than Good” section, so a 2-for-3 day with a two-run home run puts him on the happy side of the ledger.
The homer was a thing of beauty – a no-doubt rocket to the opposite field on a 3-1 count against Orioles’ starter Mike Wright. His first long ball of the spring tied him for the club lead with Kevin Pillar.
Big, Bad Backstops: Russell Martin had his hands full trying to catch Dickey’s flutterball in a real fake game for the first time, but he didn’t let the difficulty of the task affect his approach at the plate. Martin drew a couple of walks and scored a run.
His replacement, A.J. Jimenez, showed once again that his surgically repaired elbow is just fine, thank you. Jimenez gunned down Jimmy Paredes trying to steal second base in the top of the eighth. He’s already nailed three runners trying to steal in just three games played.
Goins, Goins, Almost Gone: Ryan Goins continued his impressive early spring with a rocket RBI triple into the gap in right-centre field in the sixth inning, tying the game with two out in the frame. Goins is 3-for-7 so far this spring, with a couple of singles to go with Friday’s three-bagger.
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THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
Weather Woes: A light rain started to fall in Dunedin around 11:30 Friday morning, and it persisted for a while, becoming heavy enough at times that there was concern that the game might not be able to be played because the outfield was so thoroughly soaked. But an hour and 42 minutes after the scheduled first pitch, we had baseball after all.
Injury Bug: Jose Bautista was in the original starting line-up, but was scratched during the rain delay and replaced in right field by Caleb Gindl.
Originally, it was thought that the wet field was the reason for the change, that with no tarp keeping the outfield (relatively) dry the Blue Jays wouldn’t want to risk Bautista’s health, but it was later revealed that his right hamstring tightened up on him over the course of the morning.
Closer candidate Brett Cecil had been scheduled to pitch in Friday’s game, but wasn’t available because of some soreness in his left shoulder. Neither injury is expected to be at all significant, and the Blue Jays don’t appear to be concerned, but neither player was healthy enough to play Friday.
Tough Day For The Aussie: Liam Hendriks couldn’t keep pace with the strong outings posted by Dickey and Hutchison. The young righty got a couple of outs around a walk, but then gave up a pair of loud hits back-to-back for the Orioles’ first safeties of the game.
First, Ryan Flaherty ripped an RBI single into the right-field corner, then Alejandro de Aza followed with a two-run bomb to right to tie the game. Hendriks is out of options, but still a longshot to break with the big club as a reliever. He didn’t do himself any favours in his first sortie of the spring.
Defensive Miscue: The Orioles scored a run on their very first hit, and it was helped out greatly by the fact that Chris Dickerson threw to the wrong base.
The speedy David Lough was on first, having walked, and he took off for second on the pitch that Flaherty crushed into the right-field corner. Dickerson played the ball really nicely off the wall, and threw to second base to hold Flaherty to just a single.
The problem was that Lough was rounding third and scampering home at the same time. The throw should come home (through the cut-off man, of course) because preventing a run from scoring is much more important than keeping the trailing runner at first base with two out. That’s an error that will never show up in a boxscore, but it’s huge.
The Blue Jays head down the road to play their Grapefruit neighbours, the Philadelphia Phillies, on Saturday afternoon.
Mark Buehrle will make his spring debut, facing Phils’ righty Jerome Williams, and we’ll have the game for you across our Sportsnet Radio Network beginning with the pre-game show at 12:30 p.m. ET. I’ll have an interview with Josh Donaldson, and then after the game we will Blue Jays Talk it up!