MIAMI – The Dominican Republic is using Jose Bautista in a familiar spot in the batting order but an unfamiliar one defensively.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-fielder was batting fourth and starting in left field against Canada in their opener Thursday at the World Baseball Classic. Gregory Polanco started in centre with Nelson Cruz manning right.
Bautista has played 55 big-league games in left field, but none since Aug. 30, 2009. He played 12 games in centre field for the Blue Jays in 2014.
"It’s a little bit of a transition, but I feel like I’ve played there enough that it’s going to be an adjustment, not an adventure," Bautista said after batting practice. "Hopefully, I don’t get very many difficult balls come my way with any nasty spins. Hopefully they get to hang up in the air long enough for me to run them down."
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WOOD GETS THE CALL: True to his word, manager Ernie Whitt inserted Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Eric Wood into the lineup batting fifth at third base, after joking he’d be "stupid" not to play the Oshawa, Ont., native after he hit two homers in an exhibition game Wednesday.
"He snuck into the lineup," Whitt quipped Thursday. "This team’s great. It really is. They come together all the time and he just fit in so well along with Freddie (Freeman) and some of the new guys here, our veteran guys really take him in under their wings. And Woody came on to the radar for me last year when I saw him in Altoona and he played extremely well. And so, yeah, he’s playing third base tonight."
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TIMING RIGHT? Looking to get some work in before arriving at the Classic, Justin Morneau joined the Italian team’s early workouts at the Oakland Athletics’ spring facility at the invitation of former Twins teammate and Italy coach Nick Punto. Still, not having a job meant he enters the tournament with only nine spring at-bats under his belt.
"I always say getting at-bats back-to-back days in spring training is when you start to find your timing," said Morneau. "Early in spring training two at-bats, day off, two at-bats, day off. It doesn’t really start to come until that last week when you play seven or eight innings and you get three or four at-bats each day. So had a little bit accelerated time line there but I got five at-bats one day, four at-bats the next day, and it was kind of rushed, but I think once that adrenaline kicks in, hopefully that timing the sort of starts.
"I learned that in the last few years in spring training, knowing that as bad as a swing feels going in the last few days when you’re in front of 40,000 people and that ace is on the mound and you’re standing in the box, that adrenaline starts kicking in and you start feeling pretty good and that timing seems to come and the swing that either was there or wasn’t there the last day of spring training, seems to find its way in there."
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RUSS PITCHES IN: The Canadians had hoped to have Russell Martin’s bat in their lineup but with the Blue Jays catcher limited to a coaching role by insurance issues, they’re still making use of his brain.
"He will sit in with our meetings with the pitchers and catchers, go over their lineup and hopefully we’re able to pitch to some of their weakness," said Ernie Whitt. "They don’t have a lot of weakness, so again we’re just hoping that we can execute some pitches, and if they do hit it, they hit it at us and we can make the plays."
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ELEMENT OF SURPRISE? Nobody knows what to expect from Canadian starter Ryan Dempster in his first pitches of consequence since the 2013 World Series, and perhaps that element of surprise could work in his favour.
"Everybody knows that he’s a great competitor," Dominican manager Tony Pena said in comments interpreted by MLB. "He was great with Boston, then with the Cubs. We have watched a few videos, but they are videos from two years ago. So we have to get ready because lately we don’t know really what we’re going to see."
