TORONTO – The batting average is up, the on-base percentage is up, the slugging percentage is down just a smidge, the walk rate is level and the strikeout rate is down substantially.
Pretty good season, no?
You’d think so, yet here is Adam Lind in mid-September hitting just his fifth home run of the season, a pivotal two-run shot in the seventh inning that propelled the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday afternoon, in a strange grey zone.
Though his slugging percentage is similar to last season’s .497, the stark drop in home runs, even with the games missed due to back tightness and a broken foot, is jarring and it bothers him.
"Ultimately home runs are where it’s at," he says. "Not doubles or batting average."
Lind hit 23 homers with 26 doubles in 465 at-bats last year while this season it’s five and 22 in 256 ABs. Despite that, all the other numbers – he’s slashing .328/.394/.492 compared to .288/.357/.497 – suggest a stronger campaign as a whole, albeit over a shorter period.
The production is there, "it just hasn’t been as fun as it could have been," he says.
"I know I’m having a good season," adds Lind. "Career-wise, for me personally, I don’t really care how many doubles I have. My goal was to get to like 300 homers, which with me hitting five this season is going to become rather impossible. I definitely want to have 200 homers, maybe 250, that’s my career goal. Doubles, RBIs, career average doesn’t really matter to me. When you go home at the end of the day and say you have 200 homers or 150 homers, I think that says something."
Lind now has 145 career home runs and what the shift in his numbers means is an interesting question, although there’s little reason to think Lind’s $7.5 million option for next season won’t be exercised by the Blue Jays. Though he’s a platoon player, few in the game are as productive against right-handed pitchers as him, and the free-agent market features few good bats.
One way or another, he’s an asset.
The drop in home runs "is the only difference," says manager John Gibbons. "Normally when you see that, guys having that big a drop, they’re really scuffling, they have trouble doing anything. That’s not the case. He’s a pure hitter, he’s got a great feel for what the pitcher is trying to do to him, he’s going to take a strike most of the time but he can hit the ball the other way with the best of them, I can’t say enough about what kind of hitter he is.
"Yeah, everybody would like to hit more home runs, but anytime you get caught up in that, things usually go south."
The return of his home run stroke, off reliever Brad Boxberger after a one-out Jose Bautista walk, broke 3-3 tie Saturday and gave the Blue Jays (77-70) their 10th win in 13 outings as they try desperately to hang in the wild card race.
Edwin Encarnacion followed with a solo shot off Steve Geltz to open up a 6-3 advantage that was too much for the Rays (71-78) and rewarded R.A. Dickey with his 13th win of the season. Casey Janssen handled the ninth for his 23rd save.
Dickey allowed three runs on four hits and two walks in seven innings of work, striking out five before 31,368 at a closed Rogers Centre. Facing a more aggressive Rays approach than the one he did in an 8-2 win on Sept. 2, Dickey was forced to adjust on the fly by going to his slowest knuckleball earlier in counts, doubling up on it at times, and sometimes using his fastball immediately after.
"I think it’s wisdom to continue to do the things you’re good at until they make the adjustments," says Dickey. "For me, I wait until I see them moving a piece on the chessboard before I make my move, because chances are they may not have made the adjustment, and what you’re doing is still going to be successful. It’s always easier to pitch to your strengths than to go back and forth."
The Rays eked out a run in the first on a perfectly placed leadoff double by Ben Zobrist and two groundballs in the first, and another in the third when Kevin Kiermaier singled, took second after goading Bautista to throw behind him to first, advanced on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
The Blue Jays scratched out a similarly ugly three-spot in the bottom of the third as Ryan Goins reached via strikeout, and scored on a Jeremy Hellickson’s throwing error on a Jose Reyes bunt single. An infield single off Hellickson’s glove by Bautista plated another before Lind put the Blue Jays up 3-2 on a fielder’s choice.
"You need that sometimes, you know?" says Gibbons.
Dickey held that 3-2 lead until the sixth when Evan Longoria – who stole a couple of hits with tremendous plays at third base – opened the inning with a solo shot.
That stage the set for Lind, who hit his first home run since June 23, a three-run homer off Chase Whitley in an 8-3 win.
The wait for No. 5 was a long one, but there’s been production in other ways in between.