TORONTO – Forget sweeping the Baltimore Orioles, is there anything more satisfying thing than getting under the skin of Buck Showalter? Not likely.
Could there be any better appetizer for the young Toronto Blue Jays than what just transpired at the Rogers Centre? Probably not.
This feels like a different Major League season, doesn’t it? The nonsense with the Kansas City Royals and the high rate of hit batters has given the start of the season an unusual nastiness.
The Blue Jays have been involved twice, now, with the Orioles and on Friday they will open a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays after a black and blue four-game series last week at the Rogers Centre which ended with the Blue Jays’ Marco Estrada hitting former college teammate Evan Longoria with a pitch.
Even-up? Let’s wait and see.
One of the lingering images of the Blue Jays recently-concluded three-game sweep of the Orioles happened before Wednesday’s game, before fans filed in to the Rogers Centre, Danny Valencia, Russell Martin and Edwin Encarnacion were going about their business in batting practice.
Walking — eyes fixed ahead — was Baltimore’s Adam Jones, making the journey back to the visitors dugout from the indoor batting cage in left field, less than 24 hours after calling out Jose Bautista for ‘pimping’ a home run off reliever Jason Garcia.
Jones walked in a straight line past the trio, and there was none of the typical acknowledgement, no nods or ‘Hey, mans.’ Valencia said something under his breath that made both of his teammates nod and smirk. Martin spit. Encarnacion watched Jones until he was out of sight. The animosity was evident.
Showalter, for his part, spent much of his time in Wednesday’s pre-game meeting with the media sniping at the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre.
He suggested Ryan Flaherty’s injured hamstring was the direct result of the Rogers Centre’s artificial surface and also made a pointed reference to the manner in which his dugout didn’t get bent out of shape the night before when the Blue Jays’ Aaron Sanchez unleashed a head-high pitch to his catcher, Caleb Joseph.
“A 22-year-old kid, huh?” he asked — a pointed reference to what the Orioles believed was Bautista’s over-reaction to having Orioles pitcher Jason Garcia throw a pitch behind him on Tuesday.
Showalter being Showalter. He did not take time out from crediting himself for the invention of the game to re-visit his own over-reaction to Blue Jays rookie Marcus Stroman hitting Joseph last season. Selective memory, one would imagine.
What are the takeaways from the Blue Jays’ first home stand?
Those of us who expect Josh Donaldson to be even more of a beast hitting at the Rogers Centre instead of cavernous O.co Coliseum can’t wait to see what happens when the weather heats up and the roof opens and the hot air rises from the artificial turf.
It feels as if this will be the most significant acquisition of general manager Alex Anthopoulos’ tenure, since Donaldson plays every day and is a controllable middle-of-the-order hitter who makes a decision about retaining Edwin Encarnacion or Jose Bautista a little easier.
Drew Hutchison gave people such as Pat Hentgen a reason to think he can take the next step up to elite status, a tantalizing hint by being perfect through five innings, and Martin might indeed turn out to be a cure-all not just for his deft touch around the plate but also for his ability to run a clubhouse.
Devon Travis? Roberto Osuna? Don’t get me started. I have concerns about Miguel Castro at the back end of the bullpen, but the answer is in-house: Aaron Sanchez.
But there’s another takeaway that became apparent Friday when a report surfaced that the Orioles had contacted Major League Baseball about concerns they had resulting from the Rogers Centre’s new artificial surface. The report said the Orioles actually considered boycotting Tuesday’s game after infielder Jimmy Paredes took a bad-hop ball off his neck in batting practice.
Whoever was spoken to didn’t work in the commissioner’s office, which as of Friday afternoon had not heard from the Orioles, according to a spokesman. The Rays, who played in the first series of the season on the new surface, also had difficulty with strange bounces, but instead of whining their manager, Kevin Cash, said simply that “we all know that with artificial turf it takes a while to settle in.”
The Blue Jays ought to take heart from this. Manager John Gibbons said at the start of the homestand that perhaps the new turf could be “an equalizer” in a ballpark known for home run after home run.
Know this, anything that makes opposing teams uncomfortable is good and anything that makes managers think about filing complaints with the commissioner’s office should be embraced and celebrated.
In the meantime, did you get the sense that by the end of the home stand the Blue Jays were beginning to figure it out? Hutchison, a fly-ball pitcher, induced ground out after ground out as the Orioles beat his two-seamer into the pillowy green surface.
I’m no fan of small ball — but a couple more third-inning bunts like the one lovingly rolled by Jose Reyes in a three-run third-inning (never mind the bunt singles) is a useful weapon on this surface, and on Thursday night it helped take Orioles starter Chris Tillman out of his game.
Meanwhile, rookies Dalton Pompey and Travis seemed to have figured out how to play balls on the new surface. It was almost as if there was a team-wide transition from ‘What the hell is this?’ to ‘Hey, look how well this works on this surface.’
Gibbons was right, the field is an equalizer. But it’s more equal for his team than it is for opposing teams. Which is the way it’s supposed to be, no?