TORONTO - Manager John Gibbons and Jose Bautista have differing opinions about the star player's bizarre decision to attempt a steal of third base with the Blue Jays down 5-0 in the fourth inning of Friday night's loss to the Red Sox.
"I've got no idea," said Gibbons after the game when asked what Bautista was thinking. "It's not smart, winning baseball and I'm sure he won't do it again."
Talking through his thought process, if you completely ignored the situation, Bautista makes sense.
"I thought I had a pretty good idea that the pitch was going to be a breaking ball and I also know that the catcher's not the best catch-and-throw catcher in the league," said Bautista. "Maybe my lead wasn't that big. Maybe I didn't get off to a great running start. But I thought it was a great opportunity for us to get two runners in scoring position with less than two outs."
The argument is solid, if you're ignoring the situation, except Encarnacion clearly wasn't prepared. He didn't break for second when Bautista took off for third.
"I wasn't thinking about (stealing) the whole at-bat," said Bautista. "It was just something that kind of just came about. I noticed the situation. I didn't see it building up to the situation or I would have given Eddie a sign that he and I have. But I stumbled upon the thought of it and didn't get a chance to give that sign to him."
In my opinion, I actually liked what Bautista did there. Too often the opposition pitchers know the Jays aren't stealing, so the threat of a steal doesn't weigh on the pitchers minds. The batters see less fastballs, and as a whole, the Jays usually don't manufacture runs.
This is on Jose a little bit for not getting the right sign, however, the thought of a steal, or even a double steal would've been huge had the Jays been able to pull it off.
Gibbons hates the move, meanwhile, Bautista regrets not making it to third, but doesn't regret being active on the basepaths.
I've said it a million times, you have to be unpredictable in the game of baseball and the Jays this season have been far too predictable.
Only Jonathan Diaz and Anthony Gose have attempted a bunt. 3/4 of the Jays batters face a shift and don't bother going the other way, and lastly, the Jays remain motionless on the basepaths, which likely leads to their atrocious avg with RISP.
Fire Gibbons before the season is over before May...this is getting to be a joke. Fire Pete "BB" Walker while were at it.
