Toronto Blue Jays DH Edwin Encarnacion, right, celebrates his two-run home run with teammate Russell Martin, left, against the Seattle Mariners during fifth inning AL baseball action in Toronto on Sunday, May 24, 2015.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
While Jose Bautista continues to try to nurse his sore throwing arm back to health it is the Toronto Blue Jays who are shouldering much of the pain.
For Sunday's wrap-up game against the Seattle Mariners, Bautista was not even in the lineup after getting a cortisone injection in his sore right throwing shoulder that morning.
Bautista's absence did not deter the Blue Jays from finally having their way with the Mariners, staving off what could have been a series sweep with an 8-2 victory in what was billed as Country Day at Rogers Centre.
The hurtin' music was blaring all afternoon and the genre seemed to agree with the struggling Blue Jays. They entered the game colder than a country singer's lament, having lost two in a row and nine of their past 11.
Not having Bautista at peak health has not helped.
Bautista's bum wing has prevented the former all-star from lining up in right field since April 21. That is when he threw himself out of whack trying to make an ill-advised throw to first base to get Baltimore's Delmon Young, who had singled.
That's 32 games and counting that Bautista has not been able to play the outfield. Since then he has amused himself by suiting up as Toronto's designated hitter, and now he can't even do that.
Even when he was shaking hands with his teammates on the field after Sunday's win, Bautista was doing it with his left hand.
Neither Bautista nor the Blue Jays are providing much in the way of updates on their slugger.
The 32-year-old declined a request from reporters to talk after the game, preferring to do so on Monday.
"Not long," Toronto manager John Gibbons said when asked how long the team might be without its star. "We'll see how it kind of goes, day to day.
"This [the cortisone shot] should help relieve some of the symptoms I would think."
Bautista has had an MRI that the team said did not reveal any structural damage. But something is causing the inflammation and soreness that allows him to swing a bat but not to throw pain free.
It has been a week since he tried throwing for the first time since April 21 and he did not sound overly enthusiastic back then, describing it as "a work in progress."
While the Blue Jays insist that having Bautista's bat in the lineup is better than having no Bautista at all, his presence as the DH has made it a chore for Gibbons to fill out his lineup card as he would like.
Gibbons would prefer to use Edwin Encarnacion as the DH more often to protect a wonky back and give some starts at first to the left-handed power bat of Justin Smoak.
With Bautista at DH, Encarnacion has been given most of the work at first and Smoak, who got a rare start on Sunday and drove in a run, has mostly ridden the bench.
And it has been a carnival show in right where Gibbons has turned to five players to try to find a suitable defensive replacement, with little success.
But the Blue Jays have been steadfast in their refusal to move Bautista to the disabled list to try to rectify his injury once and for all and promote another healthy body from Triple A.
Aaron Sanchez (4-4) turned in another solid outing for the Blue Jays, going 62/3 innings for the win. He allowed both Seattle runs off seven hits and struck out four.
Trailing 1-0 after Kyle Seager hit his seventh home run for Seattle in the second inning, the Blue Jays were held hitless by Mariners' starter Taijuan Walker through four innings.
That ended abruptly in the fifth when Kevin Pillar led off with a bloop single into right that helped open the floodgates in what would result in a four-run inning.
Ryan Goins, making what in all likelihood was his final start at shortstop for some time, then knocked a two-run home run to right field to move the Blue Jays in front 2-0.
Known more for his defensive prowess, the home run was his first of the year.
Goins has been filling in at shortstop in the absence of Jose Reyes, who has been out for almost a month recovering from a cracked rib.
But Reyes is expected to be in the starting lineup for Monday's game against the Chicago White Sox after completing a three-game rehab assignment in Triple A.
Russell Martin then doubled in the fifth and he came in to score on an Encarnacion home run, his 12th on the season, that lifted Toronto in front 4-1.
The Blue Jays tagged on four more in the seventh to turn the game into a laugher.
ON DECK
The Toronto Blue Jays will wind up their 10-game homestand when they welcome the Chicago White Sox to Rogers Centre on Monday night for the start of a three-game series. Wednesday's game, originally scheduled for the evening, will instead start at 12:37 p.m. to accommodate Chicago's trip to Baltimore for a doubleheader against the Orioles the next day. Jeff Samardzija, whom the Blue Jays were reportedly interested in before last season's trade deadline, will toe the mound for the White Sox on Wednesday.
Monday, 7:07 p.m. (ET): Toronto RHP Drew Hutchison (3-1, 6.06) vs. Chicago RHP Hector Noesi (0-3, 5.60).
Tuesday, 7:07 p.m. (ET): Toronto RHP R.A. Dickey (2-5, 5.49) vs. Chicago LHP John Danks (2-4, 5.11).
Wednesday, 12:27 p.m. (ET): Toronto RHP Marco Estrada (1-3, 3.90) vs. Chicago RHP Jeff Samardzija (4-2, 4.28).
All games at Rogers Centre.