NEW YORK – There’s been a lot of sitting for Dalton Pompey, not to mention most of his fellow September call-ups, since his arrival at the beginning of the month, and Friday, finally came the first big-league start for the Canadian outfielder.
“Honestly it’s crazy, I never dreamed of playing here,” he said before his Toronto Blue Jays lost 5-3 to the New York Yankees. “I always thought my first start would come in Toronto, which I would have liked, but Yankee Stadium, you can’t beat that. To think I’m going to be playing in a game, on the field against Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees – if you asked me this six months ago I would have said this isn’t possible. But everything is possible if you put the work in and believe in yourself.”
On the latest forgettable night in an increasingly regrettable month for his team, Pompey was able to carve out a few unforgettable memories. In the second inning, he worked the count to 3-1 against Hiroki Kuroda and lined a solid to right field for his first hit in the majors.
He ended up being stranded – shocker, we know – but as he rounded second after Jose Reyes was thrown out to end the frame, Jeter came up to him, offered congratulations, patted him on the butt, and moved on.
Big-league validation that’s as good as it gets.
“He just said, ‘Congrats, hope for a great career for you,’ and I said, ‘Thanks, it’s a pleasure to meet you,’” recalled Pompey. “He said, ‘Likewise, keep swinging it.’ Good words for me. (After) I was like, I just talked to Derek Jeter. Surreal, right?”
Pompey struck out in the fourth, was robbed of a double by a diving Mark Teixeira at first base in the seventh and lined out to first again in the ninth during a solid showing. Given the collective offensive struggles of Kevin Pillar and Anthony Gose, and with Colby Rasmus still out of favour, the start won’t be his last before the season ends.
“He looks like a big-leaguer,” manager John Gibbons said after the game. “You’ll see a lot of him from here on out. … Let’s see what he is.”
Pompey’s reaction?
“It’s nice that he can support me and he believes in me,” he said. “Hopefully I can go out and do my best to help this team win. That’s all I can do, I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
Pompey had just three at-bats prior to Friday, being mixed in sparingly in the early part of the month as the Blue Jays (77-76) tried to claw their way back into contention for the second wild card. A season-high sixth straight loss has taken care of that, and with their elimination number rapidly approaching reality has hit.
“Mathematically we’re not out of it, but I think everyone knows the situation,” said Mark Buehrle, “we’re going to be going home at the end of the season.”
Their standing creates the opportunity to mix in Pompey and pitching prospects Daniel Norris, Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin more often, but the starting rotation’s streak of 25 straight outings of at least six innings, extended by Buehrle’s six frames during which he allowed five hard-luck earned runs, has eaten into the young arms’ expected workload.
Regardless, the experience of big-league life, if not big-league action has its benefits for them all.
“I don’t know that you can put a price tag on what they’ve been able to learn first-hand,” said assistant GM Tony LaCava, who oversees the farm system and player development. “Each year we have a rookie development program where we try to demystify the major leagues for the kids, bringing them to Toronto, having them meet the people they’ll see when they get to the majors, but to come in here and live it, you just can’t duplicate the experience.
“Even though they haven’t played as much as they’d like, they’re at least getting to experience the routines, how you show up to the ballpark, the dos and don’ts, pre-game, post-game. They’re very wide-eyed and they’re watching the right guys, like Mark Buehrle, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, guys that do things the right way. It’s a great example for the players.”
Pompey, the 21-year-old chosen in the 16th round of the 2010 draft, hasn’t used his time idly. One of the few position player prospects of promise on the cusp of earning a spot with the Blue Jays, has been studiously paying attention to everything around him.
While he’s expected to open 2015 in the minors, with the expected departures of Rasmus and Melky Cabrera there is opportunity for him.
“I’ve tried to pick the brains of guys like Jose Bautista, Jose Reyes, tried to watch them in how they go about their business every day,” said Pompey. “Watching the games, I’ve noticed a lot of these games are one- or two-run games and it comes down to the little things that happen, and you’ve really got to be on top of the little things, and the big stuff takes care of itself. Watching guys who play my position, I see what they do and how I can maybe incorporate it into my game. But at the end of the day it’s all the same game and I’m trying to play the same way I did coming up.”
Before the game Pompey studied video of Kuroda, trying to identify his release point, some tendencies and settle on which of his pitches to hunt. Pitchers in the majors, he’s observed, “have a game-plan and as a hitter you also have to have a game-plan to be successful.”
Pompey, without a doubt, has been that this season, one that started at single-A Dunedin and included a stop in the Futures Game prospect showcase before his arrival in the majors. The action he sees over these final days will serve him well, but the Blue Jays had hoped to be playing for far, far more.
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NOTES: Marcus Stroman will start Saturday as expected with an appeal of his six-game suspension unlikely to be heard before the Blue Jays leave New York. One possible scenario is for him to pitch and then drop his appeal, returning in time to start next weekend in Toronto. … Mark Buehrle has now lost 12 straight decisions to the Yankees, the longest active streak versus any team in the majors. At 194 innings, he’s now six frames away from 200 for the 14th straight year. … Edwin Encarnacion, who hit a two-run homer in the first, underwent a precautionary MRI on his back earlier in the day. He’s been having trouble with it off and on in recent weeks. … Jose Bautista’s run-scoring groundout in the fifth gave him 100 RBIs for the third time in his career. … Dioner Navarro, shaken up earlier this week after taking a foul tip off the mask, used a steel mask instead of the titanium one. While the steel ones are heavier, the additional weight better absorbs the impact and offers extra protection.