For Jose Reyes, it was anything but a routine out.
The brittle Toronto Blue Jays shortstop was leading off the game Thursday night at Rogers Centre and he stroked a grounder toward Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Logan Forsythe.
Forsythe easily gathered the ball, and made the relay to first for the quick out – and Reyes loped back into the Toronto dugout.
Reyes took a seat by himself near the dugout entrance, his batting helmet still lodged on his head. He then grabbed the lid, bashed it into the concrete floor while grimacing in obvious frustration and stalked back into the hallway that leads to the clubhouse.
Ryan Goins, who had just been summoned earlier in the day from Triple-A Buffalo, was in Reyes's spot to begin the top of the second inning.
Reyes, the oft-injured veteran, is sidelined once again, the initial prognosis from the American League club being that he left the game with "soreness to the left side."
Should he be gone for any length of time, the pain will also be felt by the Blue Jays, who were rather meek with the bats during a 4-2 victory by Tampa Bay.
In the process, the Rays took the series three games to one, the first series loss of the year for the Blue Jays.
During spring training, the 31-year-old Reyes declared himself pain free and was anxiously awaiting the start of the 2015 campaign in hopes of redeeming himself after two disastrous injury-filled seasons.
Last year, Reyes injured his hamstring in the first game of the season, missed 16 games and was plagued by leg soreness the rest of the way.
Reyes came back to play in 145 games, but he committed a career-worst 19 errors, the most of any American League shortstop.
In 2013, his first season with the Blue Jays, Reyes tore up his ankle during an awkward slide into second base and was sidelined for more than two months.
Reyes had a spring to his step to being this season and the switch hitter was sporting a .333 average through the first nine games while displaying good range at shortstop.
But there was a dark cloud lingering over the horizon in recent days.
Reyes let it be known Saturday in Baltimore he was suffering from a sore left oblique muscle, but was intent on trying to play through it.
Toronto manager John Gibbon said before Thursday's game that the primary reason Goins was called up was so the Blue Jays could get back to a seven-man bullpen.
The manager said he was planning on resting Reyes, but not until Saturday's game against the Atlanta Braves. And he said the plan was to start Steve Tolleson at shortstop and not Goins.
In order to make room for Goins on the 25-man roster, the Blue Jays designated for assignment long reliever Todd Redmond, who had surrendered four earned runs in both of his appearances this season. The Blue Jays were well aware of the muscle soreness Reyes was trying to fight through.
If the shortstop is now sidelined for any considerable length of time, the club will have to answer why Goins was not brought up sooner to sub Reyes before a small injury became a larger concern.
Goins is a useful defensive player who can also man second base with admiring aplomb. At this stage in his career, he is probably better defensively at shortstop than Reyes, but his bat has always been his drawback. In 67 games with the Blue Jays last year, Goins hit a measly .188. In six Triple-A games with the Bisons this season, Goins was hitting .350 with a double and three RBIs.
The Blue Jays bats were muzzled by Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer, who shut down the Toronto offence over seven innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 11 to improve to 2-1.
The loss was absorbed by Toronto starter Aaron Sanchez, who allowed three of the Tampa Bay runs off five hits in 6.1-innings. Sanchez is now 0-2 on the year.
With the Rays leading 2-0 in the sixth, Sanchez gave up a leadoff double to Evan Longoria before getting Desmond Jennings to ground out.
Gibbons went to the bullpen after that, summoning lefty Aaron Loup, but Loup surrendered a pinch-hit home run to Tim Beckham to run the Rays lead to 4-0.
The Blue Jays loaded the bases with nobody against Tampa Bay reliever Steve Geltz in the eighth but could only come away with one run off a sacrifice fly by Edwin Encarnacion.
Rays manager Kevin Cash was ejected in the inning after an umpire's ruling that Toronto's Josh Donaldson was hit by a pitch was upheld after video replay.
In the ninth the Blue Jays made it a bit closer when Devon Travis doubled off Rays closer Brad Boxberger that scored Russell Martin from second base. But Goins popped out to the infield to end the rally and the game.