Latest News

MIKE RUTSEY, QMI Agency

TORONTO - Like a cop on the street, Jose Bautista was back pounding his old beat Tuesday night.

The Jays asked him to shift back to third base last week and after preparing himself for the switch the past four days he made the move against his old team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Why now?

"Four days of work, four days of getting comfortable with his rhythm and the tempo of the ground ball," manager John Farrell replied. "Out of respect to Jose, he wanted to feel that comfort and we wanted to be sure we wouldn't be putting him there too quick."

Bautista's move figured to create a drop in the effectiveness of the outfield's defence and that didn't take long to materialize.

In the fourth inning with arunner on first, Matt Diaz hit a sinking liner to right that Bautista probably would have caught. Eric Thames, in right, didn't get a great jump and pulled up, the ball bounced by him and evaded Corey Patterson backing him up allowing an RBI triple.

Garrett Jones followed with a grounder to Adam Lind at first. It should have been another out but when Lind looked up to flip the ball to first, Reyes was late getting to first, leaving the runner safe and another run in.

The inning then slid down the drain, the Pirates counted four, and in the end they emerged with a 7-6 victory despite four homers from the Jays.

"We contributed to that inning (fourth) with some sloppy defence, a ball getting through to the wall