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Mischievous Tulo and Goins get team to practice in Devon Travis t-shirts

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TORONTO — Those prankster Blue Jays did a little late season teambuilding Friday when almost the entire team wound up in Devon Travis T-shirt jerseys for batting practice and pregame workouts Friday. The T-shirts, purchased by Troy Tulowitzki and Ryan Goins, were the kind of things supposed to bring teams closer. "I didn't know what it was," admitted Travis. "The first I saw of it was at my locker."

The T-shirt had Travis' name and number on the back and an a rather large emoji of a baby on the front. Why a baby?

"They call me baby," said Travis. "I don't mind. As long as they call me something. They call me the baby because I sleep a lot. I guess that makes me the baby around here." Travis got the nickname because of the hours he keeps. When the team is up early for breakfast, he often sleeps. When they are asleep at night, he is often awake.

"It's a nickname," said Travis, batting a team high .306. "I didn't make it up but I'm fine with it."

The baby T-shirt bit coincided with the Yankees rookies being asked to dress up as babies for their flight to Toronto. Guess the season has gone gone just a little too long.

Manager John Gibbons on the Travis T-shirts, by the way: "I didn't get one."

GIBBY, THE MAD SCIENTIST

Jays manager Gibbons on what global warming means to him and his baseball club: "We want our own version of global warming. We're just waiting for the Blue Jays to heat up."

There are nine games left in the regular season.

RUSSELL RANT

What's eating Russell Martin? The veteran catcher walked through the clubhouse pre-game and said out loud to no one in particular, "Media, get the f-k out."

HITS AND MISSES

At the most powerful point in his career, Jose Bautista hit a home run every 10.5 at bats with the Blue Jays. In his first six seasons in Toronto, he was somewhere between 10.5 and 16.1 at bats per home run. This season, playing hurt and occasionally leading off, Bautista has gone yard only once every 20 at bats ... Jays continue to protect Bautista by keeping him out of the outfield. Ezequiel Carrera played left field Friday night, Michael Saunders played right field ... Yankees remarkable rookie, Gary Sanchez, has everyone talking about his 19 home runs in basically two months. But that's not all that impresses the former catcher, Gibbons.

"He's a Yankee legend already," said Gibbons. "And the way he throws the baseball, he can really slow the running game down." Some are wondering whether Sanchez, having played less than half a season, can win the American League Rookie of the Year award ... The Blue Jays are playing these final nine games as though they are still in a fight for first place in the American League East. But they realize how far apart they are from the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are basically doing this September what the Jays did last September - which is basically rendering the division race singular ... Gibbons view of the Red Sox: "Boston is on fire. It's going to be tough to catch them." What Gibbons would like to see: "Ideally we'd love a shot to go into those final three games and you could still win the division. But you've got to try to win (Friday night) - that what it comes down to now."

HEAR AND THERE

Another nice outing for the lefthander, Francisco Liriano, who seems to be getting his stuffback. He went six innings and gave up no earned runs Friday night. In his three September starts, he has pitched 18.1 innings, allowed four earned runs for an earned run average of 1.96. He gives the Jays something to think about as a post-season pitcher and as a part of a rotation next season that should include Aaron Sanchez, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, and Marcus Stroman ... The Jays will finish ahead of the Yankees in the regular seasons for just the second time since 1994 ... They did it last year and will finish ahead of them this season. In the previous 21 seasons, the Yankees finished ahead of the Jays each time... Condolences to pitching coach Pete Walker on the passing of his mother. He returned to the team after being absent to deal with family matters ... Jays got a good look at the sensational Sanchez in the first inning, when as the Yanks designated hitter, he hit a ball to left field that may still be going. It was that hard. Sanchez wound up with a double ... Martin got a great ovation from the sold out crowd at Rogers Centre when he tried to make a foul catch in the first inning. Martin dove for the ball, slid on the turf and didn't make the catch. The applause for the effort was genuine ... Change of look for Josh Donaldson Friday night. He went for the high dark blue socks, which isn't usually his look. Maybe he wanted to change something after a difficult final game in Seattle ... Jays had the bases loaded in the first and second inning against the Yankees and ended up with three runs.

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