DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays say the physical issues that kept right-fielder Jose Bautista and reliever Brett Cecil out of Friday’s 5-4 Grapefruit League victory over the Baltimore Orioles are minor ailments and nothing to worry about.
Bautista was scratched from the lineup before a one hour 40 minute rain delay with right hamstring tightness but he isn’t expected to miss much time.
“His hammy tightened up on him a little bit, he’ll be fine,” said manager John Gibbons. “If he feels something we’re not going to throw him out there, we really didn’t want anybody out on that [wet] grass anyway, but you had no choice.”
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Cecil, who had been scheduled to pitch an inning in his spring debut, sat out with soreness in his shoulder. He last pitched in Monday’s intrasquad game.
“His shoulder is a little tender,” said Gibbons. “We don’t think it’s a big deal.”
Asked if Cecil’s shoulder had been examined, Gibbons replied, “they get checked out anytime [something is wrong]. A guy gets a hemorrhoid he gets checked out. Don’t know who’s doing it but somebody is.”
Cecil landed on the disabled list with elbow inflammation at the end of the 2013 season, and missed time with a groin strain last year.
THE KNUCKLER FLUTTERS: R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball was fluttering all over the place during his two innings of work Friday and though Russell Martin dropped a few, the right-hander had plenty of praise for his catcher.
“There was only really one that I thought that he would have normally handled with a little more experience,” said Dickey. “Outside of that I threw two strike threes that were really good, one was on a 3-2 count to Snider where it dropped 12 inches right at the last second. He did a great job. He’s definitely got all the tools, it’s just a matter of working together. …
“I feel good about his progress and I feel good about his aptitude with it,” Dickey added later. “One of his traits that’s very valuable is he wants the best for the other guy and that shines through for him. That’s a good leadership attribute.”
Martin was happy with how those two innings went, and said he feels better handling the pitch every time out.
“The knucklers have certain tendencies and you start kind of understanding, if the ball starts in this area normally it tends to cut a little bit, if it starts down for the most part it’s going to dip down a little bit,” he explained. “The tough ones are when it’s on the glove side. That’s the toughest one to catch. But I’ve already made adjustments. Sal [Butera, who caught 10 games with Joe Niekro] has helped me out. He gave me some tips. It’s helped out a lot.”
Just like their last stint together in Monday’s intrasquad game, Martin told Dickey that if he called the knuckleball, he could switch over to the fastball without telling him, as a way to improve his natural reactions catching Dickey.
“He called a knuckleball first pitch of the game and I threw a fastball,” said Dickey. “I’m doing that some just to work him out, and he wants the test. That’s another great thing about him, he wants the challenge, so we did that on a couple of occasions.”
HUTCHISON ON PACE: Drew Hutchison followed R.A. Dickey’s two shutout innings with two clean frames of his own, allowing just a walk. Like Dickey, who’s taking a more deliberate pace to his prep this spring, Hutchison is also building up more deliberately now that he doesn’t have to win a job the way he did last year.
“I can kind of work on certain things from start to start whereas last year I didn’t have that luxury,” he explained.
A focal point Friday was the slider.
“When you only have two innings sometimes you can’t get to everything,” Hutchison said. “You try to find one thing that’s going to be your main thing. Today I wanted to make sure I got some sliders in which I did. So as you get more pitches and more innings you’re able to kind of put everything together.”
SANTANA KEEPS WORKING: Johan Santana has started playing catch but there is no firm plan yet to how he progresses or when he might get back on a mound.
“It’s just kind of how it feels,” said manager John Gibbons. “He’ll let those guys know when he’s ready.”
