TORONTO — They cheered when he jogged out for warm-ups 20 minutes before first pitch; they cheered even louder when he made the game’s first put out, 6-3; they gave him a long, roaring standing ovation when he stepped into the batter’s box for his first at-bat.
Then he really gave them something to cheer about.
Troy Tulowitzki arrived in Toronto Wednesday night, and if you were anywhere within a square kilometre of Rogers Centre you perhaps noticed the seismic event that followed his third-inning homer — a loud, 460-foot line drive into the second deck of left field seats — to get the Blue Jays on the board in an eventual 8-2 trouncing of the Philadelphia Phillies.
"Some guys do things with style, y’know?" Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of his new shortstop’s debut. "Some guys have that knack. I thought it was tremendous the ovation he got when he stepped into the box. That was classy."
Tulowitzki admitted the long standing ovation actually made his first at-bat as a Blue Jay — he was also starting a game as the leadoff batter for the first time in his career — more difficult. He was nervous coming into the night and maybe everything that was running through his head helped contribute to him chasing a slider in his first at-bat.
But Tulowitzki more than settled in after that and made no mistakes in his next three, swatting the two-run no-doubter on an 0-2 sinker in the third inning before lining a pair of doubles to left-centre field in the fifth and sixth.
"I was nervous going into the game, no doubt about it. It’s the first time I’ve worn a different uniform. I kept looking down and seeing blue. It’s a little different for me," Tulowitzki said. "[The home run] was huge for me to get that under my belt. I think that I relaxed after that and took better swings."
Download it now: iOS | Android | Windows
Tulowitzki came around to score following both doubles as many of his new teammates had productive nights at the plate themselves, combining for 16 hits against a besieged Phillies pitching staff. Philadelphia starter Jerome Williams was driven from the game in the fifth, after allowing 10 of those hits and four runs, giving way to a bullpen that didn’t fare much better.
"This team, man — those guys put on a show hitting. That was fun," Tulowitzki said. "It was nice to give us a lead and to win a game in the first one is what you want. You come here to win games and that was one of them."
Meanwhile, Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey — a significant trade acquisition himself two and a half years ago — was excellent, working quickly, earning weak contact, and cruising through his first six innings while allowing just one base runner to touch second base.
With the roof open on a humid night in Toronto, Dickey’s knuckleball fluttered all over the strike zone at 77-79 mph and gave Philadelphia hitters fits. While he continued a strange low-strikeout trend — he whiffed four — that has marked his season, Dickey relied on the defence behind him to get outs, earning seven in the air and eight on the ground.
"I thought he threw the ball great," Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin said. "I feel like he keeps throwing the ball better. Today was probably the best knuckleball I’ve seen all year. He didn’t need any help with his secondary pitches, didn’t really need the fastball, didn’t need the changeup. He was commanding the knuckleball and it was nasty."
Dickey says muggy nights like Wednesday can be both a help and a hindrance. His knuckleball works well in the humidity, but excess perspiration makes it challenging to keep his hand dry, which is crucial to throwing a knuckler that doesn’t spin. Atmospheric elements aside, Dickey was most happy with his velocity, which he feels has been increasing over his last handful of starts.
The 40-year-old struggled with stiffness in his muscles and joints comings out of spring training — Dickey calls it "body crankiness" — which he feels hampered his mechanics. But as the season has worn on, he’s felt looser and more able to command his knuckleball with velocity.
"I’ve felt great the last two months and I don’t see any reason why I can’t feel great going forward," Dickey said. "I’m just a little bit older. I’m feeling 40 from time-to-time. It takes a little bit more to get your body going. "
Dickey’s struggles early in the season were pronounced, as he pitched to a 5.77 ERA over his first 10 starts. But since the start of June, Dickey’s been much better, and after leaving Wednesday night’s game with no earned runs to his name, Dickey has a 2.96 ERA over his last 11 starts. Better yet, he hasn’t given up a home run in three consecutive starts, the first time he’s done that since 2013.
Dickey identifies an outing against Houston in mid-May — he allowed seven runs and 10 hits in five innings — as the nadir of his season and the point when he started turning things around.
"I kind of dug a hole for myself after that outing. Statistically you look at that and you go ‘oh gosh, you’ve got a long way to go to get you back to respectable numbers,’" Dickey said. "I’m not accustomed to those numbers being what they were. But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I just told myself after that outing, ‘We’re going to figure it out and grind it out.’ And hopefully I’ll be able to carry that through."
But this night was always destined to revolve around Tulowitzki, no matter how he — or the Blue Jays — fared. As far as debuts go, it likely couldn’t have been better. Not that Tulowitzki wanted to focus much on it after the game.
"It’s not a big deal. As long as we win, I could care less how I’m playing to be honest," Tulowitzki said. "I think what I consistently try to do is put together good at-bats. Do whatever I can to help us win."
He certainly accomplished that, and the crowd was eager to share their appreciation. When he came up for his fifth at-bat of the night in the seventh inning, the 27,060 fans in attendance cheered and chanted "Let’s go Tulo, let’s go Tulo!" as he stepped into the box. They still cheered when he bounced a grounder to short.
It looks like they’ll be cheering Tulowitzki for a long, long time.