Blue Jays' Josh Donaldson ends frustrating first half on appropriate note

TORONTO — No one in their right mind questions Josh Donaldson’s will to win.

With some players it takes a little reading between the lines to see their competitiveness, but that’s not the case with Donaldson. He attacks the ball in the field and seizes extra bags on the basepaths as if baseball games can be won with grit and elbow grease alone.

Unfortunately, for the Toronto Blue Jays third baseman they simply cannot. The sport rewards skill and precision over “compete level” almost every time. As the Blue Jays finished the first stanza of their season on Sunday with a 19-1 loss to the Houston Astros, Donaldson demonstrated his profound desire to make every possible play to help his team win, only to see it amount to nothing.

His eventful day began with the Astros’ first hitter when he appeared to make an outstanding play on a George Springer chopper.

Donaldson’s barehand-and-toss combo got a raucous reaction from the 46,622 in attendance at Rogers Centre as the Blue Jays seemed to have started the game in the best possible way. Unfortunately for Toronto, the play was reviewed and reversed as Springer arrived before the ball.

The very next inning Donaldson made another valiant attempt to make the “big play.” With Springer at the plate again he dove into the hole to stop a ball ticketed for the outfield and rifled it to first only to see it sail on him, allowing a run to score.

You could make the argument the throw shouldn’t have been attempted — although Donaldson did seem to have time because the ball was hit so hard — but the effort on the play can’t be questioned. The payoff for that effort? An error that ultimately added four unearned runs to starter J.A. Happ’s tab.

In the third inning Donaldson was back at it, trying to go the extra mile to make something happen for his club. The Blue Jays were down 5-0, but there was plenty of time to mount a rally. With Russell Martin on first, Donaldson laced a 112.6 mph bullet off the left-field wall and appeared to hustle into second to put two men in scoring position.

However, once again the call on the field was reviewed and once again a sober second look did not favour Donaldson. The replay clearly showed that second baseman Jose Altuve got him on the forearm just before he could reach the base.

Inning and potential rally over. The Blue Jays scored one run from there on an Ezequiel Carrera solo shot with two out in the ninth.

Those three plays defined Donaldson’s day — although he did finish with a strong 2-for-2 with a walk and added a bobbling fielding error in the seventh — a game of aggressive mistakes and razor-thin margins. It’s hard to think of a more appropriate way for the Blue Jays superstar to finish off a first half that has been challenging from both an individual and team perspective.

Donaldson’s success and his club’s are inexorably linked — such is the fate of a superstar on a fringe contender. Unsurprisingly, the story of his season mirrors the biggest Blue Jays narratives. Injury problems. An inability to match career norms at the plate. Bad luck. All three have been hallmarks of the Blue Jays’ 41-47 start.

Technically speaking, the season’s second half is 14 games shorter than the first, but if Donaldson and the Blue Jays keep having days like Sunday, it could feel just as long.