Jose Bautista expected to return to Toronto Blue Jays tuesday – MLB News
The Toronto Blue Jays star hitter Jose Bautista is expected to return on Tuesday to play against the Seattle Mariners. Bautista had injured his ankle on Thursday while playing against the New York Yankees.
“I think I’ll play Tuesday, that’s the date ... probably,” Bautista said, speaking to the media Saturday for the first time since spraining his right ankle. “We’ll see how it feels when I wake up.”
Edwin Encarnacion has replaced Bautista by the time the latter is satisfactorily fit to appear in the crucial games. The Blue Jays engaged in a tough battle against the New York Yankees in the four-game series that resulted in a 2-2 draw.
Being one of the most instrumental players of the Blue Jays and considered to be the team’s backbone, Bautista felt a sense of tremendous relief after the announcement that he would not need any MRI exam.
“Optimistically, we’re thinking Sunday, if not, it might be Tuesday,” Farrell told reporters Saturday morning. He’s been wearing a walking boot. We’ll continue to work getting the swelling out.”
Bautista is comfortably poised to hit another season with 50 home-runs. Considering the fact that he had done it last year as well, Bautista will earn a new glory if he achieves this statistics. There have rarely been a lot of baseball players who have managed
to do it in back-to-back seasons.
Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Alex Rodriguez are among the players who have made this record and Bautista is in line to realise this dream.
Having played 85 games this season and remaining 301 at-bats, Bautista has scored 74 runs with his 31 home-runs, having 101 hits to his credit and 65 RBIs, making it a wonderful .336 average and .701 SLG.
Of the last ten games that he has played for the Blue Jays, he has contributed to six victories compared to four loses that the team had. Bautista’s career average stands at .254 with 424 runs to his credit in the 821 games he has played in his career with
an impressive record of 144 home-runs.
Remaining two at-bats on Thursday, the last game that he played, Bautista had a hit to his credit and a run in which his team convincingly beat the Yankees 16-7.
The Blue Jays will start the three-game series against the Seattle Mariners from Monday whereby the team is expected to put on display a tremendous performance as they stand 18th in the MLB rankings currently.
Bautista, for his part, will be the most decisive factor in determining the result of the game as he is expected to join the team on Tuesday.
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