MINNEAPOLIS – Josh Donaldson will join the Toronto Blue Jays in Cleveland on Thursday and the team said he’s expected to be activated from the disabled list for their doubleheader with the American League Central leaders.
The star third baseman played seven innings of defence for single-A Dunedin on Tuesday, making three throws across the diamond for outs. He’d appeared in one other rehab game, as the DH on Saturday, but has been on a throwing program since hitting the DL April 11.
A corresponding roster move will need to be made and while infielder Gift Ngoepe would seem to be a likely candidate to make room, outfielder Steve Pearce was pulled from the lineup in Tuesday’s 7-4 win in 10 innings over the Minnesota Twins with tightness in his ribcage.
Pearce also didn’t play in Wednesday’s 4-0 loss. The Blue Jays could, in theory, wait to make a move in between games, allowing them to have more fresh players for the two contests.
Whatever the move, getting Donaldson back will add depth to a lineup that went 9-9 in his absence.
Jaime Garcia will pitch the opener in Cleveland for the Blue Jays while Joe Biagini will be recalled from triple-A Buffalo as the 26th man to start the second game.
Weather may be an issue although a rain-free window in the forecast opened up to keep the clubs from pushing back the twinbill.
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A NEW SHIFT
The four-man outfield the Minnesota Twins have employed against Justin Smoak this week prompted the Blue Jays slugger to try something similarly outside the box – square around to drop down a bunt.
It didn’t work, Smoak fouled the ball off, but the attempt speaks to the emerging new cat and mouse game between hitters and coaches who position fielders.
“If I get it down, I’m safe,” Smoak said of his first-inning attempt Tuesday night. “That’s all that matters.”
Bunting is not exactly in Smoak’s repertoire, as he’s got precisely zero sacrifice bunts since he entered pro ball in 2008. But the Twins were the first team to use a four-man outfield shift against the all-star first baseman, moving the shortstop out to left field with the other infielders swung around to the right side.
Typically, clubs move their third baseman over to the right side of the infield when Smoak bats left-handed, and he says he tries to keep the defensive alignments from affecting his approach.
“I’ve been shifted forever now, it is what it is, I don’t pay attention to it,” he said. “The shortstop going out to left field, though, that’s a little different. On certain pitches you can maybe try to punch one through there, but I feel like when I start trying to do that, I get out of whack.”
Smoak’s bunt attempt may have served as a deterrent – the Twins didn’t use the four-man outfield against him in Wednesday’s series finale.
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USING THEIR LEGS
By no means should anyone expect the Blue Jays to end up among the league leaders in stolen bases this season, but as the bag swiped by Kendrys Morales on Tuesday shows, they’ve certainly been more opportunistic on that front.
“There aren’t a lot of us (fast runners) on this team but we’ve got to take advantage of the guys we can steal off,” said Kevin Pillar, the team leader with five stolen bases in five attempts. “When we have opportunities to try to get extra-bases, especially in that situation, there are many more ways to score from third base than second base.”
Pillar did just that Tuesday night against John Curtiss, timing up the slow-to-the-plate right-hander to steal third. Morales then stole second, trying to goad the Twins into a throw so Pillar could take off for home, but taking his bag when they didn’t bite.
Teoscar Hernandez is the only other Blue Jays player with more than one stolen base – he’s got two and was caught for the first time Wednesday – but they’re 13-for-18 and at an 81 per cent success rate, are fourth in the American League.
They’re also tied for sixth with a 43 per cent rate of extra bases taken – more than one base on a single, more than two bases on a double – according to Baseball Reference, while they’re fourth with 37 bases taken on fly balls, passed balls, wild pitches and defensive indifference.
“We kind of got caught in our ways from three or four years ago – now it’s a much different lineup out here,” said Pillar. “We still have guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but we also have some guys that can do a lot of things with the bat. We’ve been hitting and running a lot more, we’ve been running the bases really well and we have some guys interweaved throughout the lineup who can run. That’s a big difference that you haven’t seen the past couple of years.”
Pillar stole 25 bases in 29 tries in 2015 but managed only 14 and 15 the past two seasons as teams started paying closer attention to him, making it harder to run. Over the winter he worked on his speed, lost a bit of weight and carved out more time in his day to talk with first base coach Tim Leiper on opportunities to exploit.
“Tim Leiper does a lot of the groundwork,” said Pillar. “We sit down and we obviously talk about the starter we’re going to see but if there are certain guys in the bullpen he says, ‘Hey, these are the guys you can get,’ he shows them to me and throughout the game, as guys come in from the bullpen, he goes through his notebook and we go through the stuff. Really, it’s about being engaged and understanding what they do and picking my spots wisely.”
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