PHILADELPHIA — Devon Travis no longer has assurances of starting every day, not the way he’s been struggling at the plate of late, and so he found himself on the sidelines for the first two games of the Blue Jays’ weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It wasn’t until Sunday’s series finale that he got the start at second, but the wait was worth it as his contributions at the plate and in the field helped the Blue Jays take the series from the Phillies with a 5-3 win.
“It was awesome,” Travis said. “All I wanted to do is go out there and feel like when the game’s over I did something — one thing, at least — to help my team win. That’s the goal every day and that’s how you collectively win a lot of games.”
Travis opened the scoring with a two-run double in the top of the second and later added a single and a walk. It was the first time all season that he has reached base three times, and it’s a welcome sign for a team whose offence has regressed this month.
“He desperately needs that,” manager John Gibbons said. “He’s too good a hitter to be where he’s at now. They all battle that confidence, and he’s still considered a young guy (who’s) kind of green at this level in some ways … a day like that might really get somebody going.”
Even after the two-hit game, Travis has a .178/.241/.315 slash line on the season, mostly because of a rough April that led to a demotion to triple-A for much of May. When healthy, Travis has rarely watched consecutive games from the bench, so Friday and Saturday presented a new kind of challenge for him: watch and be ready if needed.
“It was different,” Travis said. “But I was ready every day. I told myself every single day that even when I wasn’t playing I needed to treat it as a day where I prepared as if I was.”
At second base, Travis made an impressive defensive play in the bottom half of the second, ranging to his right to corral a ground ball before making a tough throw on the run to second where Yangervis Solarte completed the force-out. Travis nearly made another impressive play later, sliding along the warning track behind first base in pursuit of a foul ball.
The Blue Jays got two more runs when Dwight Smith Jr. slapped a two-run double down the left field line with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, and Curtis Granderson capped off their scoring with a solo homer in the ninth.
On the mound, J.A. Happ put together yet another strong start, giving the Blue Jays 6.2 innings of six-hit ball while striking out eight. He relied heavily on his change-up, throwing the pitch 22 times because the Blue Jays’ scouting reports suggested that approach would work well against the Phillies’ bats. It did, and Happ allowed just two earned runs, lowering his ERA to 3.84.
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Thanks to Happ’s outing, the Blue Jays have now strung together three consecutive quality starts for the first time this season. That took far too long for a rotation that was expected to be a team strength, but it’s a welcome run of success regardless.
“We got really good starting pitching all three days,” Gibbons said. “It makes a huge difference.”
“We certainly try to feed off of each other, so this is a good step,” Happ added. “Three quality starts, that’s definitely a good step in the right direction … we’ll hopefully continue that streak.”
The Blue Jays’ bullpen has struggled of late with many close calls and blown leads, but this game ended in relative peace. Seung-hwan Oh retired all four batters he faced in relief of Happ and Ryan Tepera recorded his second save of the series far more easily than he obtained his first, allowing only a walk that was later erased on a game-ending double play.
With that, the Blue Jays win a series for the first time in nearly a month and head to Boston where an even greater challenge awaits.
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