Shi Davidi
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The similarities between the calf tweak Josh Donaldson suffered at Tropicana Field over the weekend and the one he suffered there early last year are eerie, something that struck the Toronto Blue Jays third baseman.
Last year, he hit a home run in the third inning and felt his calf (reported as the right one last year, but said to be the left during spring training) tighten up as he rounded the bases. In the seventh, he hit a weak chopper to the left side in the seventh but walked to first base on a ball he might have beaten out, and then turned straight for the dugout.
On Sunday, he hit a home run in the first inning and felt his right calf tighten up a touch as he rounded the bases. In the sixth, he hit a grounder down the third-base line and charged hard to first before pulling up, walking back very gingerly to the dugout.
Both games were the finale of a four-game set, and both times the Blue Jays headed home for their home opener afterwards. He ended up playing in it last year, hitting a grand slam in what finished as an 8-7 loss to Boston, and he sounded optimistic about being ready for Tuesday’s opener against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“It’s a funny thing,” he says. “I don’t know if it was my right one last year, but [sunday] it was when I hit the homer in the first inning, when I hit first base and was pushing off that I kind of felt it a little bit then. Nothing extravagant by any means.
“As the game went on, I was trying to leg out the ball down the line and it almost felt like a bit of a cramp. With my right calf, as cautious as we were in spring training, the situation, I thought it was a good idea to get off it for the rest of the day.”
Donaldson missed most of spring training with a right calf strain, but the latest incident is thought to be unrelated.
“This is was in the outside part of my calf,” he explains. “It sort of started to respond to some treatment that we were doing after, everything checked out to be in good shape. Day-to-day is what they’re telling me.”
SLOW STARTS:
At 1-5 out of the gate, the Blue Jays have matched their worst start through six games first set in 2004, but they’re only a game off the 2-4 pace they opened with last year. While last year issues with the bullpen were front and centre, the primary culprit so far is a lack of offence.
The Blue Jays have only 20 runs so far for an average of 3.33 per contest, but have scored two or less in four of the six games. Collectively, they’ve posted a .201/.279/.297 slash line and their four home runs are second-last in the American League, one up on Boston, and their .576 OPS is better than only Seattle’s .535.
“In spring training, you have guys playing in, out, in, out, you’re not really playing every day, you start getting into the mix of things, having to go from day to night, something you don’t really experience right away. Especially with some guys on our team, we do have an older lineup as far as position players are concerned, so we do our best to get everybody ready,” Donaldson says in trying to offer an explanation.
“With that said, you don’t really go through what you’re getting into in the season until you’re here. I believe that will start changing, and I believe that our guys are going to bounce back sooner than later and I still feel very good about our team.”
Struggles at the beginning of a season become magnified because there isn’t a body of work to counter them against. That in turn distorts the stats, something Marco Estrada warns against.
“No one should pay attention to the numbers right now, I wouldn’t put anything into it, we’re six games in right now, it really doesn’t matter, this means nothing,” he says. “Obviously we want to win every game but we’re all still trying to get things going. I saw a lot of positive things out there and we’ve got a really good team, we’ve just got to put it together. It’s going to come. Going back home is going to make us feel a little bit better about ourselves and we’ll play a little bit better. We’ll get things going. We’re six games in, don’t buy too much into it right now.”
Adds Troy Tulowitzki: “It was definitely tough, 1-5 is not the way you want to start, but good thing there’s 162 of these. It’s only six games, go back home in front of our great fans and get this thing rolling. We’ve got a good ball club, there’s no panic in here. We’re going to be just fine, I promise you that.”
SIMMERING FEUD:
There was an interesting bit of interplay at home plate in the third inning Sunday between Steve Souza Jr., and Russell Martin. The previous inning, the dugouts emptied after Tulowitzki criticized the Tampa Bay Rays outfielder for a late slide and before he stepped into the batter’s box, he decided to try and explain himself to the Blue Jays catcher.
“Anytime something like that happens, I try and clear it up with him,” says Souza. “He’s usually very reasonable about dealing with it. He agreed. He was just trying to protect his player. He thought [the slide] was dangerous. I said listen, it was late, I didn’t know what was going on behind me, and we cleared the air. Hopefully we can move on from this one.”
Martin was among the Blue Jays angered by Souza’s slide, which broke an unwritten baseball rule about sliding over top of the bag with legs up. Souza nearly clipped Tulowitzki’s right foot, which was off the bag, and then his left one, which was on it.
Tulo on Souza's slide: Felt it was late, said something to protect future players
“It was real close,” says Tulowitzki. “I like playing this game. If I’m going to get hurt, I don’t want it to be on something like that.”
As Souza engaged in an animated discussion with Martin, Rays manager Kevin Cash started yelling at his right-fielder.
“Our entire bench was like let’s go, this is the at-bat of the game right now, a really big at-bat for us,” says Cash. “We were just hoping Souza would let it go and focus on hitting the three-run homer.”
That’s what Souza ended up doing, the decisive blow in a 7-2 win.