By John Lott
NEW YORK — The Canadian team’s Canadian kid was taking his cuts in the indoor batting cage at Yankee Stadium when his hitting coach came in and asked if he had seen the lineup.
Dalton Pompey is a rookie, a September callup, a bench guy. Usually, he has no reason to check the starting lineup.
“Am I in it?’ ” he asked coach Kevin Seitzer. “He said ‘Yeah, you’re in there today.’
“I was hitting right-handed in the cage and he said, ‘You’re going to have to hit left-handed today’ because (Hiroki) Kuroda’s pitching. I was like ‘OK’ and was super-excited. It was an awesome feeling.”
Mark Buehrle of the Toronto Blue Jays throws a pitch in the first inning during a game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
The switch-hitting outfielder from Mississauga, Ont., will have reason check the lineup card over the Toronto Blue Jays’ remaining nine games. In the Jays’ 5-3 loss to the Yankees, Pompey secured his first big-league hit – a sharp line-drive single to right field in the second inning – and hit the ball hard in two other at-bats. First baseman Mark Teixeira made a sensational stop to rob him of a potential double in the seventh.
Pompey, 21, started the season in Class A Dunedin. He will finish it as a major-league regular.
“You’ll see a lot of him from here on out,” manager John Gibbons said.
As a youngster, Pompey was a hometown Blue Jays fan but he liked the Yankees too, especially Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada. He never was able to get Jeter’s autograph back then, but when he learned he would make his first major-league start in Yankee Stadium, one of his first thoughts was: “‘Oh, I’m playing against Derek Jeter.’ It’s crazy.”
He imagined reaching second base and exchanging pleasantries with the Yankee legend. “I definitely want to say ‘what up’ to Derek Jeter,” he said.
The dialogue was different, but fantasy became reality in the second inning. With a man on and one out, Pompey smacked a 3-1 pitch into right field. Two batters later, Jose Reyes grounded out to end the inning. Pompey slowed down as he approached second base, and there to meet him was Jeter, who gave him a quick congratulatory greeting and a glove-pat on the backside.
New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira stretches, but misses a foul ball hit by Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista that bounced into the camera well in the seventh inning of a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in New York. The Yankees won 5-3. (Kathy Kmonicek/AP)
“He just said, ‘Congrats, and I hope for a great career for you,’ ” Pompey recalled. “And I said, ‘Thanks, it’s a pleasure to meet you.’ And he said, ‘Likewise, and keep swinging it.’ “
Jeter’s career will end Sept. 28. Pompey’s is just beginning. On his way out, the Captain gave the Canadian kid a memorable welcome.
“Surreal, right?” Pompey said.
Little else was memorable for the Blue Jays, whose record fell to 77-76. They have lost six in a row for the first time this season. In that span, they have scored
Edwin Encarnacion started them off with a two-run homer in the first inning. But the Yankees scored five runs off Mark Buehrle in his six-inning session. And when the Jays loaded the bases in the seventh, former teammate Esmil Rogers quelled the threat by extracting a feeble ground ball from Encarnacion.
Buehrle needs six innings to reach 200 innings for the 14th straight season. His final scheduled start comes Thursday, but manager John Gibbons said he might be used on the final day of the season if he is within reach of 200.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion high-fives a teammate in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run off New York Yankees starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda in the first inning of a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in New York. (Kathy Kmonicek/AP)
Pompey started in left field, a position that he has played all of 14 times in 319 minor-league games. He is a centre-fielder, and a good one, but Anthony Gose is about as good as they come. So Gose started in centre and Pompey in left.
Even before getting some practice in left field during batting practice, Pompey was unconcerned about the adjustment. The theory is longstanding: If you can play centre, you can play the other two outfield spots.
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The speedy Pompey, who made it to the majors after hitting .317 with a .392 on-base percentage at three minor-league levels this season, had appeared in seven games for the Jays as a pinch-runner and pinch-hitter. Gibbons has been impressed with the 21-year-old’s preparation and poise.
“He works hard, he’s preparing and he’s very mature,” Gibbons said. “Very professional kid.”
And with the way the Jays’ offence has been struggling, the manager also seemed to suggest he had nothing to lose by starting Pompey.
“Maybe he’ll come in there and jump-start us,” Gibbons said.
Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees fields a ball in the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
Pompey’s hit followed a one-out single by Munenori Kawasaki in the second with the Jays up 2-1. But Kuroda allowed only one unearned run after while working 6 2/3 innings.
Pompey was a 16th-round draft pick in 2010. He weighed 175 pounds. He was raw. He started slowly in the low minors, but since then, he has gained 20 pounds and become a polished outfielder and steady hitter with potential for more physical growth and more power.
“He carries himself like a big-league player,” Gibbons said. “He’s big and strong. Let’s see what he is.”
That will require more than the last nine games of the season. But the manager seems convinced that Dalton Pompey has a chance to stick, perhaps earlier than even upper management expected.