Anthony Santander continued working towards a major-league return with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Saturday night.
The Toronto Blue Jays outfielder hit second and served as Buffalo’s designated hitter for his third straight rehab game against the Rochester Red Wings. Santander went 1-for-4 with a first-inning RBI double in the game, taking all of his at-bats from the left side of the plate.
After going 0-for-2 with two walks and two strikeouts on Friday, Santander didn’t waste any time getting back into the hit column on Saturday. On the fifth pitch of his first trip to the plate, the one-time MLB all-star tucked an RBI double just inside the right-field foul line, bringing home outfielder Jonatan Clase to open the scoring.
The double came off Santander’s bat at 79.7 m.p.h. and came on an inside curveball. He would eventually come around to score on Riley Tirotta’s RBI single as part of a three-run first.
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In his next three at-bats, Santander couldn’t find his way on base, grounding out in the second and popping out in the fifth and eighth.
After homering in his first appearance with the Bisons on Thursday, Santander is now 2-for-9 with the long ball and double, four walks and a pair of strikeouts.
Toronto’s major off-season addition has been out of the MLB lineup with a shoulder injury since May 29. His rehab assignment was supposed to start earlier this week, but was delayed due to back tightness.
With 14 games remaining on the Blue Jays’ regular-season schedule, Santander is looking to put his name in the conversation as a potential boost through the final few weeks of the year.
“We’re at a point where if he doesn’t get really rolling, we’ll run out of time, in terms of the season,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said during an appearance on Blair & Barker Friday. “What we’re looking for out of Tony is just kind of when he’s at his best. Again, it’s been a frustrating year for him when he was playing, so we want to make sure that he’s hitting the ball hard.
“It’s not like he has to hit .400 while he’s there to come back and help us, but he’s gotta be hitting the ball hard. He’s gotta be showing some bat speed and things that were lacking a little bit when he was playing earlier in the year.”
Before hitting the injured list, Santander was slashing .179/.273/.304 with six homers in 50 games for the Blue Jays.
Santander will likely be back in the lineup on Sunday for the Bisons’ final game of their series in Rochester. After that, Buffalo will return home for its final series of the season against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, which begins on Tuesday.
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