The Blue Jays (Sort of) Played a Game Today: Notes on Travis’ return, and more
By Cam Lewis
7 years agoDevon Travis! He’s back!
- Devon Travis made his 2017 Grapefruit ball debut today, and was immediately tested, ranging to his left on the outfield grass to toss out the speedy Brock Holt at first base. The knee looked good! And you know what else looked good? His swing. The first pitch he saw was clubbed into left field for a double, which got the crowd really fired up. His second at bat wasn’t as successful, as he grounded into a double play. But the most important thing from his at bats was his knee. On the double, he hustled hard around first base and didn’t appear to struggle at all, and then, on the double play ball, he booked it up the line to first without an adversity.
- It’s been said many times before, but Devon Travis is a huge key to this team’s success as a catalyst in the lineup, and today’s game gave an excellent reaffirmation about his health for the upcoming season. Travis said after the game that he didn’t deal with any pain or discomfort throughout his five innings of work, and that he was thrilled to be able to go out and get some work in. He said, though, that he was interested to see how he feels tomorrow morning, as this was the first time he had seen game action, and sometimes a setback can take a few hours to settle in.
- Troy Tulowitzki was batting leadoff today (is that going to be a thing this season? Surely not if Devon Travis is healthy) and continued his excellent play as of late with a double and an RBI single off of Drew Pomeranz. He was also out on the field before the game throwing and working with both Josh Donaldson and Devon Travis, furthering his reputation of the team’s player-coach.
- Steve Pearce didn’t look out of place at all at first base today. In the fourth inning, he scooped a ground ball, accurately threw it to second base, and got his foot on the bag for the return throw to complete the 3-6-3 double play.
- J.A Happ had an excellent outing, continuing on his strong play overall in spring. Happ, the newly named No. 2 starter for the regular season, tossed five-and-one-third innings, surrendering one earned run on three hits while collecting five strikeouts. After the game, he said the key to the outing was how he felt in his recovery process. He was working on using his changeup more this game, which is something he’s also going to be looking to do in his final start before heading into the season.
- Overall, the Jays received excellent pitching. After Happ exited the game, Aaron Loup finished off the sixth inning with a strikeout and a flyout. Ryan Tepera, Tim Mayza, and Dominic Leone each had clean innings to finish off the game.
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