PHOENIX – Nathan Lukes has quietly grinded through the first three weeks of the season in more ways than one. So, when his pinch-hit single snuck through the right side Friday night to end an 0-for-23 slide, and the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder saw his teammates in the dugout happy for him as he reached first base, “it was just what I needed,” he said.
“I looked at Bud (first base coach Mark Budzinski) and I go, ‘I kind of want to hug you,’” Lukes recalled. “And he was like, ‘We can hug.’ It was good. I feel like I’ve been due for a cheap one. Hopefully they keep coming.”
Three more did in Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, one leading to a first-inning run, and he added a sixth-inning outfield assist, throwing out Geraldo Perdomo trying to stretch a single. It was the type of outing by the 31-year-old the Blue Jays became accustomed to last season, and the kind of effort Lukes aims to deliver more regularly now that he has a handle on the vertigo that’s dogged him since the middle of spring training.
Lukes visited with a Phoenix-area vertigo specialist Friday morning and doubled down on some head-movement exercises that can help alleviate the symptoms, which include dizziness, unsteadiness and nausea. Since arriving in Arizona, he’s had a couple of “the better days with my vision that I’ve had in the past month,” which played a big role in him getting better results.
“I don’t know where (the vertigo) came from and how it happened, but it’s hard to hit when the world is spinning and when you feel like you could throw up at any second,” said Lukes. “I never want to take myself out of the game, whether I’m feeling good or feeling bad. So, I’ve been grinding.”
As have the Blue Jays, of course, who lost their fourth straight game when Jeff Hoffman, pitching in the eighth in a 2-2 tie, allowed singles to Ildemaro Vargas and Alek Thomas and a Ketel Marte walk before Corbin Carroll cleared the bases with his third home run of the season.
It was the second straight poor outing for Hoffman, who allowed two earned runs during a messy ninth in Tuesday’s 9-7, 10-inning win at Milwaukee and adds yet another concern to a roster filled with them.
Daulton Varsho sat out after leaving Friday night’s 6-3 loss after two innings with left knee discomfort and while manager John Schneider said the Blue Jays, “with the way we’ve been rolling,” are simply “trying to just be extra careful.”
“I don’t think there’s any need for a roster move or anything,” Schneider added, noting that Varsho had been checked out and there wasn’t any concern about anything structural.
Max Scherzer steadied after two short outings tied to his forearm tendinitis with six innings of two-run ball, but the ongoing offensive issues remained for the Blue Jays, who got only Jesus Sanchez’s RBI single in the first, bringing home Lukes to open the scoring, and a Kazuma Okamoto RBI single in the sixth that made it a 2-2 game. That was despite 12 hits as they went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
But as so often has been the case for the Blue Jays, the key blow belonged to their opponent.