A s*** tonne better, it plays.
Donaldson halts health concerns as Blue Jays keep rolling
Shi Davidi
@shidavidi
April 3, 2018, 11:00 PM
TORONTO – Three pitches into things Tuesday night Yoan Moncada sent a dribbler right along the third-base line that Josh Donaldson fielded and quickly relayed across the diamond, his solid throw to first coming just as umpire Jordan Baker ruled the ball foul.
By design or not, the toss on a dead play gave the third baseman a chance to show that he had enough in the tank to handle whatever came his way in the field. And he did just that in a 14-5 pounding of the Chicago White Sox, recording three defensive assists while adding a two-run homer and a laser-beam RBI single off the left-field wall.
“I knew it was pretty close and I figured, hey, this is a perfect opportunity for me to just let one go,” Donaldson said of the grounder in the first. “It ended up being foul so it didn’t really matter what happened, but I just wanted to get a gauge on it. It was nice.”
Donaldson was back at third base for the first time since opening day, when what the team has described as a case of dead arm left him struggling to make throws across the diamond.
A pair of issue-free throwing sessions Sunday and Monday suggested he had turned the corner and while he wasn’t slinging darts the way he usually does – he estimated his arm strength at 85-90 per cent – Tuesday’s performance offered something to build on.
“Not every throw that we make is max effort, you actually do not want to be max effort (all the time),” said Donaldson, saying he learned from Troy Tulowitzki to be smarter in picking spots to really unleash across the diamond. “You want to have the ability to get there but most of the throws we’re making are not everything that we have. I feel very comfortable in changing arm angles and I do feel like if I need to put a little extra hair on one that I do have that ability. I feel good about where I’m at right now.”
Donaldson’s return to the field defensively created more flexibility for manager John Gibbons, who put Kendrys Morales, who doesn’t really have a spot on the field, back at designated hitter.
“I wasn’t worried, to be honest with you, about anything,” Gibbons said of Donaldson’s throwing. “He made the plays tonight. Put that behind you.”