Blue Jay Josh Donaldson, left, is congratulated by Jose Reyes after both runners scored on an RBI single by Chris Colabello in the first inning against the Chicago White Sox on Monday in Toronto.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Jose Reyes playfully showed bunt on the first pitch he faced, but he drew the bat back for a called strike. The second pitch from Hector Noesi was a called strike and the third the Toronto Blue Jays leadoff hitter lashed foul. The fourth pitch was another foul, as was the fifth, followed by a ball.
With the count 1-2, the Chicago White Sox pitcher decided to showcase his curveball for the first time, and Reyes turned on it and shot it into the right-field corner for a double. Not a bad at-bat for the scattershot Blue Jays switch hitter, who was facing his first big-league pitching in almost a month.
He may be as flimsy as plastic wrap when it comes to his health, but Reyes is a dynamic performer when he has his game on. So the lurching Blue Jays happily welcomed Reyes back into the starting fold Monday night at Rogers Centre, hoping there would be some magic in his presence. (The Blue Jays officially activated the 31-year-old prior to the game, optioning Munenori Kawasaki back to Triple-A Buffalo.)
"It's good to see him," Toronto manager John Gibbons remarked about his shortstop before the game. "Maybe he'll spark us. He's got that knack, you know."
He showed that in his first at-bat after missing 26 games nursing a cracked rib. And with Reyes dancing off second, Josh Donaldson worked a walk and both batters moved up a bag on a groundout by Edwin Encarnacion.
With two out, Chris Colabello stroked a single into centre that scored both runners and the Blue Jays were on their way to making Reyes's return a triumphant one.
Fuelled by a four-run first inning, the Blue Jays would go on to earn a 6-0 victory over a rather flaccid Chicago lineup that was like putty in the hands of Drew Hutchison.
Major League Baseball's run-support pitching leader with 9.55 runs a start (when in game), Hutchison was again the beneficiary of some timely Toronto offence to lift his record to 4-1 on the year. He pitched the second complete game of his career and it was a gem, as he held Chicago hitters on just four hits while striking out seven over nine dominant innings.
While the return of Reyes was uplifting, much of the pregame talk surrounded Jose Bautista and the soap opera that is his injured right shoulder.
The Blue Jays slugger, who has been confined to designated hitter's duties since he injured himself April 21, was not in the lineup for the second straight game after receiving a cortisone shot for his ailment Sunday morning.
The inflammation in his shoulder was causing him significant discomfort, Bautista said before the game; that's the reason he decided to go for the injection. An MRI and X-rays failed to detect any structural damage, so Bautista said the shot was simply another attempt to try to finally bring him some pain relief.
"Not only on the field for my work life, but also regular life," Bautista said. "Having throbbing pain at night is not necessarily enjoyable, and I was having to take pain medicine just to go to sleep. And that was messing up my stomach. It was just time.
"And I've been on the pain medicine for too long, anyways, so it's time to cut that out and try alternatives. And this is the least invasive out of all the alternatives."
And the "alternatives" included exploratory surgery, which he said "is not something that I would do right now, unless my career is in jeopardy."
Bautista said he does not yet know when he will be able to play the outfield again. But he agreed an ideal time would be on Monday, when the Blue Jays begin a three-game interleague series in Washington – where there is no designated hitter.
Right now, that would appear to be an optimistic development.
After Colabello's single in the second scored two runs, Justin Smoak came up to the plate and launched a home run to right that scored two more and put Toronto ahead 4-0. Smoak would finish the game going two-for-three with three runs batted in.
Also in the second inning, Donaldson walloped a solo home run to straightaway centre that easily cleared the wall for his 10th of the season, bringing the score to 5-0.
Reyes was hoping he would be able to make some sort of an impact in his first game back. He wound up going one-for-four with one run scored. "I don't want to promise anything, like I'm going to go five-for-five right out of the gate; I hope so," he said. "But like I said, it's going to take a little bit of time."