HOUSTON – Nolan Reimold isn’t superstitious per se, but the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder is a creature of habit.
So when he found out shortly before batting practice Thursday night that he’d be in the lineup because Colby Rasmus was sitting for disciplinary reasons, he had had to rush through his checklist of rituals. It all worked out, as he homered twice in a 6-5 over the Houston Astros.
“I do a lot of stupid stuff before the game, it takes me a while to get ready,” Reimold. “(The late notice) didn’t affect me at all, I just switched BP groups, got my swings in, got back in and started my regular routine to play.”
So what does his “stupid stuff” entail?
Well first, he has to get his pre-game meal, whatever is on offer in the clubhouse, and eat it at his locker stall, not the dining area.
Then he does the same thing with his drink, again at his stall.
After that he puts sticky grip all over his bat handles and sits at his stall scraping it off.
“I take a lot of grief for that,” he said.
There was no arguing with the results Thursday, when in his first start since coming off the disabled list Sunday, he delivered big. Reimold had just one pinch-hit at-bat in Boston earlier this week and he felt uncomfortable in his first trip to the plate against Houston before going deep in his second, when he felt his swing locked in.
He lined out to the wall in left in his third at-bat and then homered again in the fourth to provide the winning margin.
What happens when his swing locks in?
“It’s a different answer for probably everybody in here,” he said. “For me it’s really just about being able to relax, that’s the key for a lot of people, but relax, get my weight back, transfer my weight forward really and being able to do that and see the ball at the same time. That’s something I always work on.”
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Did the Toronto Blue Jays have money to spend at the trade deadline?
“We absolutely had the financial resources to add at this trade deadline,” said GM Alex Anthopoulos. “If we had a deal, obviously we were in dialogue with Paul (Beeston) all the time and certainly he’s keeping ownership up to date, any deal that we felt was a good baseball deal, the finances were certainly there for us. That has never been a problem and it was just one of those things that we couldn’t find a baseball deal that made sense for us and that’s really what it came down to.”
Others disagree, and word is that Anthopoulos’ hands were tied financially.
Whatever the case, the Blue Jays’ inability to fill in the roster is the real problem with standing pat at the deadline.