When he was sent packing to Las Vegas last month,Adam Lind didn’t whimper or whine. He took the demotion like a man, saying that he was hoping to get back to his 2009 form, the year he won a Silver Slugger. And that’s just what he did.
Even when it appeared it couldn’t get any worse for him, GM Alex Anthopolous said that his first baseman hadn’t been physically in shape at the start of the 2012 season. That must have taken a blow to Lind’s ego and so, he was sent down to the minors on May 17 after hitting .186 through 36 games and not producing as needed from the five-hole in the order.
But Lind had something to prove, or so it appeared. The 28-year-old lit up the AAA scene, in 32 games with the Las Vegas 51’s, he batted .392 with eight homers, 29 RBI while and slugging a whopping .664%.
Now, four days fresh from a promotion back to Toronto, Lind started right where he left off.
The Jays’ bats were relatively quiet on a night which saw Carlos Villanueva pitch five three-run innings. The recently hot-hitting Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus went a combined 0-10 while the combination of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, the MLB’s fiercest hitting power duo, went homerless.
Yet, the bat of Adam Lind was there in full force, getting hold of pitches right down the middle and smoking them over the wall at the Rogers Centre.
The first pitch, an Ervin Santana curveball hung letter-high, was smoked to right-centerfield, giving the Jays their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Then, on a 3-2 fastball middle and away, Lind clubbed one the other way off of Hisanori Takahashi, giving the Jays their seventh and lasting run.
Lind’s two homeruns, his fourth and fifth of the season respectively, were his first since May 9 in Oakland and became his eight multi-homerun of his career, first this year. Lind, who was recalled along with David Cooper on June 25th in exchange for backups Mike McCoy and Ben Francisco, has now gone 4-10 since the recall in the series against Boston.
Officially, Lind went 2-3, driving in four- all via the long ball- and drawing a walk in the sixth for the Blue Jays (39-38), who won for the first time in four games. rotation. Since the first of the Blue Jays injury woes started- a June 11 left oblique muscle strain to Brandon Morrow- the Jays have averaged 5.70 runs against per game, nearly a run-and-a-half up from their season average.
If he can play with some sort of consistency, Lind’s bat can add an extra dimension of offense to help the recent woeful pitching.
Published: Jun 30, 2012 10:42 pm