I think he has no chance of making it long term. He's like 51-50 career. He throws too hard to last 10 more years. If I were the Mets, I'd offer him an extension of no more than 3 years/ 24M....and he'd take it since he never made much money yet....think the Mets have him for another year for like a 5M club option.
If I'm Dickey, I take that....enough $ to be really comfortable for life.
If I'm Dickey, I take that....enough $ to be really comfortable for life.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130108&content_id=40890414&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
01/08/13 7:46 PM ET
[h=1]Blue Jays happy Dickey's long road led to Toronto[/h][h=2][/h]By Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com
TORONTO -- R.A. Dickey still remembers every little detail about the first time he felt like becoming a full-time knuckleballer might actually work.It was back in 2005 while he was a member of the Rangers. He was pitching against the Mariners and slugger Raul Ibanez stepped into the batter's box to take his cuts.
The knuckleball was still very much a work in progress, but under the bright lights of a Major League stadium there was a sneak peak of what the future might have in store.
"I threw it, it came out of my hand and didn't rotate a smidgen," Dickey said during his introductory news conference Tuesday afternoon at Rogers Centre. "He swung, his helmet fell off and he went down on his back knee. I remember thinking, 'This is kind of fun.'
"Of course, the next pitch I think was hit over the fence, but the point being that was the first glimpse and then from there I struggled. I would have some moments and then I would struggle."
In reality, the so-called perfect pitch was just the beginning. It marked the start of a long journey that would see plenty of ups and downs on the path to becoming a legitimate starting pitcher.
Dickey remained with the Rangers until 2006 and then spent the next two seasons toiling in the Minor Leagues. He would later move on to the Mariners, but it wasn't until he joined Minnesota that things began to click.
All of the hard work slowly began paying off. The notoriously tough-to-control pitch was starting to become more reliable as he learned how to throw it for strikes. It's a grueling process that every knuckleballer must go through and one that didn't begin to reap dividends until the end of 2009.
The turning point actually happened during one of the all-time lows of Dickey's 10-year big league career.
"I had just been sent down and it was really disappointing," Dickey said. "They were going to make the playoffs and I had thrown great against the Yankees but they sent me down. I finished up the year in Rochester in the rotation. I threw a couple of complete games down there and I had a couple of games where I felt like something clicked.
"But then the season ended and I didn't really know. Then came 2010 and I threw a one-hitter for Buffalo where I gave up a hit to the leadoff guy and retired 27 in a row after that."
That game in Buffalo turned out to be the final game to date Dickey would be forced to pitch in the Minor Leagues. He was a candidate to be waived by the Mets but instead received a promotion to the Majors and began to transform his previously disappointing career.
Dickey went on to post a 2.84 ERA in 174 1/3 innings that year. He followed that up with a 3.28 ERA in 2011 before becoming a household name the following season during a banner year in New York.
The 38-year-old is now coming off a Cy Young season in which he went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 233 2/3 innings. He also struck out a career-high 230 batters while tossing five complete games and walking just 54. The numbers have improved for three consecutive seasons and that's ultimately what prompted Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos to pull the trigger on a blockbuster trade in December.
Acquiring Dickey didn't come without a hefty price tag. Anthopoulos was forced to part with top prospects Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard as part of the deal, but after crunching the numbers and meeting with a countless number of scouts, it was a move the organization felt it ultimately had to make.
"I started thinking he's going to get better," Anthopoulos said. "I know it's crazy to say, as good as he was, but I think he [will]. He has gotten better each year and there were a lot of indicators to me.
"The more work we did on him, the more comfortable we became with the price. Clearly it was expensive; we gave up very good young talent but we also got a Cy Young Award winner and you don't get those guys for free. We had the ability to say no, but ultimately for the organization, guys like this don't come around very often."
Dickey learned how to throw the knuckleball under the guidance of his mentor, Charlie Hough. The former Major Leaguer told Dickey that it took him only a day to learn the pitch but a lifetime to learn how to throw it for strikes.
It obviously didn't take Dickey quite that long but there was still a four-year learning curve. The process essentially began by throwing the pitch and hoping for the best but there was very little consistency with the movement or command.
That eventually changed and once Dickey began to throw it for strikes, all of the pieces started being put into place. He realized that not only could he command the pitch but he could begin to manipulate it to get exactly what he wanted on the mound.
"You knew you were going to have to battle the reputation that the pitch has out there, of a pitch that can't be trusted, a pitch that can't be thrown for strikes, a pitch that's a gimmick," said Dickey, who signed a three-year contract worth $30 million after the trade was finalized. "So for me, everything that I did was bent on trying to be able to harness this pitch in the strikezone as frequent as possible.
"Once I was able to do that, then I learned how to change speeds with it. Once I did that, I was able to learn how to change elevations with it, move it around a little bit, and that's what you saw last year, was kind of the culmination of a lot of lessons over the course of my seven-year progression with the pitch."
01/08/13 7:46 PM ET
[h=1]Blue Jays happy Dickey's long road led to Toronto[/h][h=2][/h]By Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com
TORONTO -- R.A. Dickey still remembers every little detail about the first time he felt like becoming a full-time knuckleballer might actually work.It was back in 2005 while he was a member of the Rangers. He was pitching against the Mariners and slugger Raul Ibanez stepped into the batter's box to take his cuts.
The knuckleball was still very much a work in progress, but under the bright lights of a Major League stadium there was a sneak peak of what the future might have in store.
"I threw it, it came out of my hand and didn't rotate a smidgen," Dickey said during his introductory news conference Tuesday afternoon at Rogers Centre. "He swung, his helmet fell off and he went down on his back knee. I remember thinking, 'This is kind of fun.'
"Of course, the next pitch I think was hit over the fence, but the point being that was the first glimpse and then from there I struggled. I would have some moments and then I would struggle."
In reality, the so-called perfect pitch was just the beginning. It marked the start of a long journey that would see plenty of ups and downs on the path to becoming a legitimate starting pitcher.
Dickey remained with the Rangers until 2006 and then spent the next two seasons toiling in the Minor Leagues. He would later move on to the Mariners, but it wasn't until he joined Minnesota that things began to click.
All of the hard work slowly began paying off. The notoriously tough-to-control pitch was starting to become more reliable as he learned how to throw it for strikes. It's a grueling process that every knuckleballer must go through and one that didn't begin to reap dividends until the end of 2009.
The turning point actually happened during one of the all-time lows of Dickey's 10-year big league career.
"I had just been sent down and it was really disappointing," Dickey said. "They were going to make the playoffs and I had thrown great against the Yankees but they sent me down. I finished up the year in Rochester in the rotation. I threw a couple of complete games down there and I had a couple of games where I felt like something clicked.
"But then the season ended and I didn't really know. Then came 2010 and I threw a one-hitter for Buffalo where I gave up a hit to the leadoff guy and retired 27 in a row after that."
That game in Buffalo turned out to be the final game to date Dickey would be forced to pitch in the Minor Leagues. He was a candidate to be waived by the Mets but instead received a promotion to the Majors and began to transform his previously disappointing career.
Dickey went on to post a 2.84 ERA in 174 1/3 innings that year. He followed that up with a 3.28 ERA in 2011 before becoming a household name the following season during a banner year in New York.
The 38-year-old is now coming off a Cy Young season in which he went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 233 2/3 innings. He also struck out a career-high 230 batters while tossing five complete games and walking just 54. The numbers have improved for three consecutive seasons and that's ultimately what prompted Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos to pull the trigger on a blockbuster trade in December.
Acquiring Dickey didn't come without a hefty price tag. Anthopoulos was forced to part with top prospects Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard as part of the deal, but after crunching the numbers and meeting with a countless number of scouts, it was a move the organization felt it ultimately had to make.
"I started thinking he's going to get better," Anthopoulos said. "I know it's crazy to say, as good as he was, but I think he [will]. He has gotten better each year and there were a lot of indicators to me.
"The more work we did on him, the more comfortable we became with the price. Clearly it was expensive; we gave up very good young talent but we also got a Cy Young Award winner and you don't get those guys for free. We had the ability to say no, but ultimately for the organization, guys like this don't come around very often."
Dickey learned how to throw the knuckleball under the guidance of his mentor, Charlie Hough. The former Major Leaguer told Dickey that it took him only a day to learn the pitch but a lifetime to learn how to throw it for strikes.
It obviously didn't take Dickey quite that long but there was still a four-year learning curve. The process essentially began by throwing the pitch and hoping for the best but there was very little consistency with the movement or command.
That eventually changed and once Dickey began to throw it for strikes, all of the pieces started being put into place. He realized that not only could he command the pitch but he could begin to manipulate it to get exactly what he wanted on the mound.
"You knew you were going to have to battle the reputation that the pitch has out there, of a pitch that can't be trusted, a pitch that can't be thrown for strikes, a pitch that's a gimmick," said Dickey, who signed a three-year contract worth $30 million after the trade was finalized. "So for me, everything that I did was bent on trying to be able to harness this pitch in the strikezone as frequent as possible.
"Once I was able to do that, then I learned how to change speeds with it. Once I did that, I was able to learn how to change elevations with it, move it around a little bit, and that's what you saw last year, was kind of the culmination of a lot of lessons over the course of my seven-year progression with the pitch."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/s...rk-r-a-dickey-prefers-as-his-legacy.html?_r=0
Baseball
A Body of Work R. A. Dickey Prefers as His Legacy
<time class="dateline" datetime="2014-03-08">MARCH 8, 2014</time>
Inside
<!-- close story-meta-footer --> <!-- close story-meta --> <figure class="media photo lede layout-large-horizontal" role="group" aria-label="media" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" itemscope="" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/09/sports/SOG-kepner/SOG-kepner-master675.jpg" data-media-action="modal">Photo
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<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="description">Toronto’s R. A. Dickey, coming off a lackluster season, writes back to people who, inspired by his stark memoir, seek solace. Credit Frank Franklin II/Associated Press </figcaption></figure>
On Baseball
By TYLER KEPNER
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DUNEDIN, Fla. — He knows what is coming from the way the mail feels in his hands. About two of three letters to R. A. Dickey have the telltale pieces of cardboard inside. Those are baseball cards fans want him to sign. The ones without the cardboard seek something more important.
“They’re just wanting someone to listen, that’s really it,” Dickey said before a game here last week. “That’s what it comes down to. People are really lonely, especially people who have had to endure things. They’re very lonely, so they’re just wanting to hear from someone who has shared a similar experience.”
Two springs ago, Dickey published a stark and riveting memoir acknowledging that he has been sexually abused as a child. He went on to win the National League Cy Young Award for the Mets, who then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays.
His life has changed in some ways — he is starting the second season of a three-year, $30 million contract — but not in others. The fame gives him a platform from which to be himself, unapologetically, and has made him a touchstone for others. He has a voice now, he said, and he likes it, but he knows that most people listen only because he pitched so well in 2012.
“Isn’t that ridiculous?” Dickey said. “The merit of what you have to say shouldn’t be based on those things, right? My hope is I won’t ever do that with somebody else.”
Dickey responds to the letters — it takes just three minutes to write three sentences, he said — and to those touched by his on-field journey from washed-up phenom to knuckleballing ace. He spent a month and a half this winter teaching the knuckleball to Frank Viola III, the former Cy Young Award winner’s son, who signed a minor league contract with Toronto last week.
But Dickey also knows that he is not viewed quite the same as he was a year ago. He was 14-13 with a 4.21 earned run average for the Blue Jays, who finished last in the American League East amid high expectations.
Dickey struggled with the roof open in Toronto, conditions that produced a 5.73 E.R.A. He ground through back pain, including multiple cortisone injections, to log 2242/3 innings — second in the American League — and went 6-3 with a 3.46 E.R.A. after the All-Star break. But he was far from the Cy Young conversation.
Continue reading the main story
“I had a very average season, considering what I feel like I’m capable of doing, and I think they thought they were going to get something much more,” Dickey said. “It’s hard to feel like you weren’t worth it. If I didn’t win the Cy Young the year before, it would have been a very good season for me. But I came off a Cy Young season, and that’s what people expect.”
For all their follies lately — five losing seasons in a row, tied with Houston for the longest drought in the majors — the Mets have sold high on veterans, getting starter Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran in 2011 and acquiring two cornerstone pieces for Dickey.
One of those pieces, Travis d’Arnaud, made his debut last season and projects as the Mets’ catcher of the future, and the other, starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard, 21, has soared in the top prospect lists. Unranked by Baseball America before the trade, Syndergaard was judged the No. 54 prospect in the sport before last season, and now is 16th.
“Curveball’s gotten better, just smarter on the mound, just being able to read hitters a little better — just becoming more of a pitcher than a thrower, really,” Syndergaard said last week, describing his progress after impressing the Atlanta Braves with his 98-mile-per-hour fastball. “I’m still pretty young now, but I feel I’m maturing as a pitcher.”
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The deal was contingent on Dickey’s approval of a contract extension, and he said he had no regrets and wished the Mets well. Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson was frank with Dickey, who said that while the Blue Jays planned to contend, Alderson told him the Mets “weren’t going to be in that position in the next two years.” Dickey took the deal, and the seemingly stronger chance of winning.
But the Blue Jays, seeking their first playoff spot in two decades, never contended. They had the same record as the Mets (74-88), played poorly on defense, had the second-highest starters’ E.R.A. in the majors (4.81, ahead of only Minnesota) and were ravaged by injuries.
Another former Met, shortstop Jose Reyes, severely sprained his ankle in April and missed more than two months. He played in 93 games, stole just 15 bases and did not hit a triple all season.
“People in Toronto didn’t see me play the way I want to,” Reyes said. “When I came back to play, I was a little bit different. My ankle was bothering me and I can’t do what I love to do, stealing bases, stuff like that, exciting baseball. But it’s stronger now — 100 percent — and I can’t wait to get into the season.”
Dickey, 39, is also optimistic, partly because he can prepare as he always did. Last year, he pitched in the World Baseball Classic, which disrupted his spring training routine, for which Dickey blamed himself. He relies on throwing a hard knuckleball, and its average velocity was down last season, to 75.6 m.p.h. from 77.1 in 2012, according to Fangraphs.
The pitch behaved more as Dickey wanted in the second half, explaining his better results. The Blue Jays did little to change their roster, giving another chance to the group that failed last season. It starts with Dickey, who has been named the opening day starter, to little fanfare.
“You wouldn’t even know he’s around,” Manager John Gibbons said. “He’s just going about his business; you don’t hear him much. Last year, he was the center of attention in a lot of ways. But he’s working hard. He knows what kind of season it was for the team last year and he knows for himself, individually, he’s better than where he started. To pick up where he left off would be big.”
Doing so would restore some sheen to Dickey as a pitcher, and perhaps make more people seek his voice. The ones who matter most, though, will look to him either way.
“I don’t want the way that I perform to be my identity,” Dickey said. “That’s one of the messages: I am more than my job, I am more than my profession. And my hope is that people will see that in me and regardless of how much money I’ve made or what I’ve done in the game, that the heart of who I am transcends that.
“That’s my hope. That would be the hope that I would want to give other people: whether you’ve been abused or whatever it’s been, you’re more than that.”
Baseball
A Body of Work R. A. Dickey Prefers as His Legacy
<time class="dateline" datetime="2014-03-08">MARCH 8, 2014</time>
Inside
<!-- close story-meta-footer --> <!-- close story-meta --> <figure class="media photo lede layout-large-horizontal" role="group" aria-label="media" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" itemscope="" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/09/sports/SOG-kepner/SOG-kepner-master675.jpg" data-media-action="modal">Photo
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<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="description">Toronto’s R. A. Dickey, coming off a lackluster season, writes back to people who, inspired by his stark memoir, seek solace. Credit Frank Franklin II/Associated Press </figcaption></figure>
On Baseball
By TYLER KEPNER
<!-- close shareTools -->
DUNEDIN, Fla. — He knows what is coming from the way the mail feels in his hands. About two of three letters to R. A. Dickey have the telltale pieces of cardboard inside. Those are baseball cards fans want him to sign. The ones without the cardboard seek something more important.
“They’re just wanting someone to listen, that’s really it,” Dickey said before a game here last week. “That’s what it comes down to. People are really lonely, especially people who have had to endure things. They’re very lonely, so they’re just wanting to hear from someone who has shared a similar experience.”
Two springs ago, Dickey published a stark and riveting memoir acknowledging that he has been sexually abused as a child. He went on to win the National League Cy Young Award for the Mets, who then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays.
His life has changed in some ways — he is starting the second season of a three-year, $30 million contract — but not in others. The fame gives him a platform from which to be himself, unapologetically, and has made him a touchstone for others. He has a voice now, he said, and he likes it, but he knows that most people listen only because he pitched so well in 2012.
“Isn’t that ridiculous?” Dickey said. “The merit of what you have to say shouldn’t be based on those things, right? My hope is I won’t ever do that with somebody else.”
Dickey responds to the letters — it takes just three minutes to write three sentences, he said — and to those touched by his on-field journey from washed-up phenom to knuckleballing ace. He spent a month and a half this winter teaching the knuckleball to Frank Viola III, the former Cy Young Award winner’s son, who signed a minor league contract with Toronto last week.
But Dickey also knows that he is not viewed quite the same as he was a year ago. He was 14-13 with a 4.21 earned run average for the Blue Jays, who finished last in the American League East amid high expectations.
Dickey struggled with the roof open in Toronto, conditions that produced a 5.73 E.R.A. He ground through back pain, including multiple cortisone injections, to log 2242/3 innings — second in the American League — and went 6-3 with a 3.46 E.R.A. after the All-Star break. But he was far from the Cy Young conversation.
Continue reading the main story
“I had a very average season, considering what I feel like I’m capable of doing, and I think they thought they were going to get something much more,” Dickey said. “It’s hard to feel like you weren’t worth it. If I didn’t win the Cy Young the year before, it would have been a very good season for me. But I came off a Cy Young season, and that’s what people expect.”
For all their follies lately — five losing seasons in a row, tied with Houston for the longest drought in the majors — the Mets have sold high on veterans, getting starter Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran in 2011 and acquiring two cornerstone pieces for Dickey.
One of those pieces, Travis d’Arnaud, made his debut last season and projects as the Mets’ catcher of the future, and the other, starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard, 21, has soared in the top prospect lists. Unranked by Baseball America before the trade, Syndergaard was judged the No. 54 prospect in the sport before last season, and now is 16th.
“Curveball’s gotten better, just smarter on the mound, just being able to read hitters a little better — just becoming more of a pitcher than a thrower, really,” Syndergaard said last week, describing his progress after impressing the Atlanta Braves with his 98-mile-per-hour fastball. “I’m still pretty young now, but I feel I’m maturing as a pitcher.”
Continue reading the main story <!-- ADXINFO classification="Marketing_Module" campaign="nyt2014_300x250_module_sextips_hp_ros" priority="1000" isInlineSafe="Y" width="336" height="280" -->
The deal was contingent on Dickey’s approval of a contract extension, and he said he had no regrets and wished the Mets well. Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson was frank with Dickey, who said that while the Blue Jays planned to contend, Alderson told him the Mets “weren’t going to be in that position in the next two years.” Dickey took the deal, and the seemingly stronger chance of winning.
But the Blue Jays, seeking their first playoff spot in two decades, never contended. They had the same record as the Mets (74-88), played poorly on defense, had the second-highest starters’ E.R.A. in the majors (4.81, ahead of only Minnesota) and were ravaged by injuries.
Another former Met, shortstop Jose Reyes, severely sprained his ankle in April and missed more than two months. He played in 93 games, stole just 15 bases and did not hit a triple all season.
“People in Toronto didn’t see me play the way I want to,” Reyes said. “When I came back to play, I was a little bit different. My ankle was bothering me and I can’t do what I love to do, stealing bases, stuff like that, exciting baseball. But it’s stronger now — 100 percent — and I can’t wait to get into the season.”
Dickey, 39, is also optimistic, partly because he can prepare as he always did. Last year, he pitched in the World Baseball Classic, which disrupted his spring training routine, for which Dickey blamed himself. He relies on throwing a hard knuckleball, and its average velocity was down last season, to 75.6 m.p.h. from 77.1 in 2012, according to Fangraphs.
The pitch behaved more as Dickey wanted in the second half, explaining his better results. The Blue Jays did little to change their roster, giving another chance to the group that failed last season. It starts with Dickey, who has been named the opening day starter, to little fanfare.
“You wouldn’t even know he’s around,” Manager John Gibbons said. “He’s just going about his business; you don’t hear him much. Last year, he was the center of attention in a lot of ways. But he’s working hard. He knows what kind of season it was for the team last year and he knows for himself, individually, he’s better than where he started. To pick up where he left off would be big.”
Doing so would restore some sheen to Dickey as a pitcher, and perhaps make more people seek his voice. The ones who matter most, though, will look to him either way.
“I don’t want the way that I perform to be my identity,” Dickey said. “That’s one of the messages: I am more than my job, I am more than my profession. And my hope is that people will see that in me and regardless of how much money I’ve made or what I’ve done in the game, that the heart of who I am transcends that.
“That’s my hope. That would be the hope that I would want to give other people: whether you’ve been abused or whatever it’s been, you’re more than that.”
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports...obblehead+with+over+Boston/9781162/story.html
[h=1]Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey celebrates bobblehead day with win over Boston Red Sox[/h]
[h=2][/h]
By Neil Davidson, The Canadian PressApril 27, 2014 7:28 PM
[h=1]Toronto Blue Jays Jose Reyes gives teammate Edwin Encarnacion (right) a playful slap in the face after scoring during eighth inning AL baseball action against the Boston Red Sox in Toronto on Sunday, April 27, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn[/h]
TORONTO - R.A. Dickey, his knuckleball moving like the noggin on his bobblehead giveaway, gave the Toronto Blue Jays a sorely needed quality start Sunday.
And the rest of the team also stepped up, with Brett Lawrie and Edwin Encarnacion combining to drive in four runs in a 7-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Toronto (12-13) leaves for an eight-game road trip, which starts Tuesday in Kansas City, having washed away the taste of a sour four-game losing streak at home.
The Jays, who had given up 36 runs on 47 hits and 22 walks during the four-game slide, badly needed a change of direction. Dickey said a talk by manager John Gibbons after Saturday's 7-6 loss, when a Jays comeback fell just short, had done the trick.
"He was just so encouraging," said Dickey, who got the win on his first major-league bobblehead giveaway day. "I think everybody left the clubhouse feeling at ease about who we are as a team. So we just needed to come out today and be ourselves. And we were able to do that.
"We fought hard. Guys were getting dirty, diving for balls, taking the extra base. I was able to throw strikes and we had a great team win today."
Said Gibbons: "It was a much-needed win, I will definitely say."
On a weekend where racism in sports made headlines thanks to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the Jays made Major League Baseball history with a record six Dominicans in the starting lineup: Encarnacion, Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Juan Francisco and Moises Sierra.
The Dominicans signed the lineup card, which Bautista said was going to be sent to the Dominican Museum of Baseball.
"It was an honour to be part of that today," said Reyes.
An announced sellout of 45,260 at the Rogers Centre saw Dickey outduel Jon Lester with Lawrie providing the early offence before the Jays put the game away with two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth.
Lawrie, who entered the game hitting .165 but leading the team in RBIs, drove in two runs with a homer and double to increase his RBI total to 20.
Dickey (2-3) scattered five hits over 6 1/3 innings, giving up one run and striking out six.
Walks have been a thorn in the Jays side. Toronto pitchers had issued 108 free passes going into play Sunday — second-worst in the majors — with Dickey tied for the MLB lead with 18.
But Dickey was in control Sunday. He threw 95 pitches, including 62 strikes, and didn't issue a walk for the first time since October 2012.
"When I have one to zero to two walks, it's usually going to be a pretty good day," he said. "And that's what I have to get back to and today was a step in that direction."
Relievers Steve Delabar and Esmil Rogers closed out the game for Toronto, which outhit Boston 9-6.
[h=1]Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey celebrates bobblehead day with win over Boston Red Sox[/h]
[h=2][/h]
By Neil Davidson, The Canadian PressApril 27, 2014 7:28 PM
[h=1]Toronto Blue Jays Jose Reyes gives teammate Edwin Encarnacion (right) a playful slap in the face after scoring during eighth inning AL baseball action against the Boston Red Sox in Toronto on Sunday, April 27, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn[/h]
TORONTO - R.A. Dickey, his knuckleball moving like the noggin on his bobblehead giveaway, gave the Toronto Blue Jays a sorely needed quality start Sunday.
And the rest of the team also stepped up, with Brett Lawrie and Edwin Encarnacion combining to drive in four runs in a 7-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Toronto (12-13) leaves for an eight-game road trip, which starts Tuesday in Kansas City, having washed away the taste of a sour four-game losing streak at home.
The Jays, who had given up 36 runs on 47 hits and 22 walks during the four-game slide, badly needed a change of direction. Dickey said a talk by manager John Gibbons after Saturday's 7-6 loss, when a Jays comeback fell just short, had done the trick.
"He was just so encouraging," said Dickey, who got the win on his first major-league bobblehead giveaway day. "I think everybody left the clubhouse feeling at ease about who we are as a team. So we just needed to come out today and be ourselves. And we were able to do that.
"We fought hard. Guys were getting dirty, diving for balls, taking the extra base. I was able to throw strikes and we had a great team win today."
Said Gibbons: "It was a much-needed win, I will definitely say."
On a weekend where racism in sports made headlines thanks to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the Jays made Major League Baseball history with a record six Dominicans in the starting lineup: Encarnacion, Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Juan Francisco and Moises Sierra.
The Dominicans signed the lineup card, which Bautista said was going to be sent to the Dominican Museum of Baseball.
"It was an honour to be part of that today," said Reyes.
An announced sellout of 45,260 at the Rogers Centre saw Dickey outduel Jon Lester with Lawrie providing the early offence before the Jays put the game away with two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth.
Lawrie, who entered the game hitting .165 but leading the team in RBIs, drove in two runs with a homer and double to increase his RBI total to 20.
Dickey (2-3) scattered five hits over 6 1/3 innings, giving up one run and striking out six.
Walks have been a thorn in the Jays side. Toronto pitchers had issued 108 free passes going into play Sunday — second-worst in the majors — with Dickey tied for the MLB lead with 18.
But Dickey was in control Sunday. He threw 95 pitches, including 62 strikes, and didn't issue a walk for the first time since October 2012.
"When I have one to zero to two walks, it's usually going to be a pretty good day," he said. "And that's what I have to get back to and today was a step in that direction."
Relievers Steve Delabar and Esmil Rogers closed out the game for Toronto, which outhit Boston 9-6.
