TORONTO — Compared to the previous concussions he’s had, the one George Springer suffered July 28, when a 96 m.p.h. sinker from Baltimore Orioles reliever Kade Strowd glanced off his left shoulder and into his batting helmet, was, in his words, “weird.”
“I had days where I felt good, had days where I didn't,” the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder explained. “And I think probably three or four days ago, I had my first great day. For me, it's about small victories and over the last three or four days, I feel like I had a lot of small victories and had another one today. I get to go and start the process. And we'll see what happens.”
Springer’s victory Wednesday was in finally clearing Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol, allowing him to begin a rehab assignment Thursday at triple-A Buffalo as DH for the Bisons. He’s likely to play at least one more game in the outfield afterwards — “I feel like that's also big,” he said — with next steps to be determined based on his needs.
Whatever those turn out to be, Springer’s return is now on the horizon for a Blue Jays team that’s missed his impact over the past couple of weeks the way it did Wednesday during a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
The Blue Jays, who managed only two hits against Cade Horton and four relievers, are 7-7 without Springer, who is tied for second on the club with 18 homers and is fourth with 57 RBIs while posting an .889 OPS. Excluding the three-game, 45-run pummelling of the woeful Colorado Rockies, they’ve scored only 39 runs in the other 11 games during his absence.
While their success has been built upon contributions up and down the lineup, the threat and presence Springer provides makes the order deeper while compounding the stress upon opposing pitchers.
On Wednesday, Horton didn’t allow a baserunner until Bo Bichette’s one-out walk in the fourth, before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. nearly put the Blue Jays ahead, but just got under a high-arcing drive to left that Ian Happ caught against the wall.
“Thought he got it,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “It kind of just ran in enough to get it on the short end of the bat a little bit. I've seen him hit plenty of them that go out that way. Good swing on a 3-0 pitch. You've got to take chances there when a guy's got good stuff. Like the approach, like the swing. He just kind of missed it.”
Their first hit didn’t come until Andres Gimenez’s one-out single in the sixth and an out later, Bichette’s tenacious 10-pitch walk ended Horton’s outing.
Andrew Kittredge took over and Guerrero, after four straight sliders, ripped a 2-2 sinker down the left-field line for a double that cut a 2-0 deficit in half and ended Horton’s scoreless inning streak at 29 innings. But Barger’s line drive to deep left was chased down by Happ, the Cubs added on a pair in the eighth inning off Braydon Fisher to make it 4-1 and held on from there.
“He was good,” Schneider said of Horton, who last allowed a run July 9 at Minnesota. “Fastball kind of cuts, sinks and he can pitch, too. So, when you're trying to get a good pitch to hit, didn't hit many of them, missed them, so you've to give him credit. And then he made some big pitches ... kind of kept us in between. He's got a good little run going.”
That put to waste seven solid innings from Kevin Gausman, who allowed just two runs on solo shots by Michael Busch in the third and Matt Shaw in the fifth, despite nine balls hit at least 101.4 m.p.h. off the bat. He needed the strong play behind him on a night he only struck out three.
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The Cubs attacked him early and often, putting seven balls in play on the first pitch and two more on the second pitch, all for outs, and the right-hander needed some solid defence behind him on a night he only struck out three.
“You can go into a game thinking they're going to be aggressive, but that was pretty crazy,” said Gausman. “I'll take it. Against me, you're either going to be kind of passive as an offence or you're going to be really aggressive. I could tell after the first that they were going to come out swinging and obviously the two homers were the difference.”
Springer said being forced to watch the Blue Jays play while being sidelined “has sucked,” because “there's nothing more that I want to do than be on the field with these guys every day.”
“It's something out of my control — it's not like I asked to get hit in head,” he continued. “That's the game. It happens, unfortunately. But for me, it was just kind of making sure that I was OK and feeling good. But it’s just sucked.”
Still, he’s been smart enough to play it slow and not push with a head injury, especially since after being hit by Strowd’s pitch, “I just kind of felt out of it for a while.”
“Obviously, when you take 96 to the head, it's not necessarily ideal,” he added. “I've had concussions before … stuff can come up three or four days later. So I was pretty much in communication with Jose (Ministral, the head trainer) the whole time and making sure I wasn't kind of outside for that long. Making sure I was doing all the right things. But from that perspective, I'm glad it's hopefully behind me.”
As are the Blue Jays, who are more than ready for Springer’s return.
