Jay Jackson has been the saving grace of the Blue Jays’ bullpen over the past month, and he’s been doing it with his mind 3,000 kilometres away.
The 35-year-old reliever is with his fifth big-league team, also having spent four seasons in Japan and five pitching in Mexico, but he seems to have found a home with the Jays’ relief corps.
He’s given up just one run over 16 1/3 innings, with 17 strikeouts, gradually working his way into higher and higher-leverage spots.
All the while, his newborn son JR is fighting hard in the neonatal intensive care unit in a Salt Lake City hospital, born July 6 at just under 25 weeks — nearly four months premature — weighing just one pound and six ounces.
Jackson had been pitching for Triple-A Buffalo, but was called up to join the big club for their doubleheader that day in Chicago.
“I was finishing packing up,” Jackson told me on the July 20 episode of the Star’s Deep Left Field podcast, “getting ready to get in bed and I was half asleep and (my fiancée’s) sister called me to let me know at like 2:45 in the morning that she was going into labour.”
The baby was born 11 minutes later.
“It was an adrenaline-packed moment. I didn’t know whether to stay and go to Chicago or go to Utah and be with them. But the doctor and my fiancée told me to go to Chicago, pitch in the game, handle business there and then leave after that.”
Jackson came into the second game of the doubleheader in a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning, retired all four batters he faced and wound up getting the win in the Jays’ 5-4 victory, his first in the major leagues since July 31, 2021 when he was with San Francisco. He then jumped on a plane and headed to Salt Lake City.
“Just watching him come in,” Jackson’s fiancée, Sam Bautista, told the Star, “you could tell he was worried and stressed and you could see some of that alleviate once he saw me.
“He gave me a hug and a kiss and we immediately went over the NICU. It was the moment when he saw JR that I fell in love with him all over again. Just seeing the look on his face where he was deeply in love with this little boy, this little baby, and you could also see some of the fear and the emotions kind of come out at that moment.”
Not long after, Jackson had to leave to rejoin the Blue Jays. Major League Baseball only allows three days for paternity leave, though the right-hander had some extra time because of the all-star break. He’s been back to Salt Lake City as often as possible since, travelling west on the Jays’ July 17 day off between home games and taking a detour after their west coast trip last week left them with another day off travelling home from Los Angeles.
“It means the world to me when he’s able to make it out here,” said Bautista. “I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and feeling blessed and relief when he’s able to make it out. He’s always on the phone with me whenever we get the updates from the doctor, the NPs or the nurses, but having him there in person …
“I have a tendency to get very overwhelmed, I’m very impatient. He helps me stay on course and just stay focused and that’s a huge relief to me. He helps me understand, like, these are the things we’re able to contribute and we can celebrate the wins and the positives. … You feel so relieved and you’re so exhausted and you’re not entirely sure what else to do and just having Jay be there and say ‘all right, babe. Cry, and we’re gonna celebrate this and now focus on our next goal.’ ”
She also sleeps much better when he’s there, a huge help for any exhausted parent of a newborn.
Jackson’s presence also seems to be helping the almost-four-week-old JR in his battle to grow and thrive inside the incubator that will be his home for at least the next two months. All of JR’s indicators of success improve when his father is there.
“He seems to like me being around so I’m trying to get there as much as I can so we can keep trending in the right direction,” Jackson said. “But I think he knows that Dad’s got some work to do before he can come back and just, hopefully keep making him proud.”
The rest of the family understands that Jackson has to leave, as well.
“Watching him do what he’s doing right now and having the Jays’ fan base rally behind him,” said Bautista, tearing up as she spoke. “The tweets that we get, I read them every single day, I read them to JR. They really help keep us motivated and help us keep going. But watching people love the person that you love for the same reasons that you love them — their grit, determination, their positivity — you can’t help but get proud. You can’t help but get emotional.”
JR is currently weighing in at two pounds. On Saturday, Bautista got to hold him for two hours outside the incubator. With the Jays’ next day off not until Aug. 14, it’s going to be a while until Jackson is able to get back.
It was a complicated pregnancy. At times there were concerns that neither baby nor mother might survive it. But they did.
“You kind of feel like you’re just holding hands and stepping into a roller coaster, the little cart,” said Bautista, “and you don’t know what the full roller coaster looks like but you just have to hold on and have faith and pray and love each other and love your baby and sit down on the ride and go.”
Full article can be found at: https://www.thestar.com/sports/blue-jays/jay-jackson-has-thrived-in-the-blue-jays-bullpen-despite-worries-over-his-premature-baby/article_f47c7972-0e98-5cc5-b89b-7ca90ccbcfe3.html