Not everyone knew yet at that point, but minutes later the news that Budzinski’s 17-year-old daughter, Julia, had died in a boating accident reached him and others, with immediate shock and grief. “I would go up for my third at-bat and it was a meaningless one, I felt. I had never felt that feeling before in my life,” Biggio recalled. “It’s a big-league game, playing against a big team, and I didn’t get a lot of baseball at that point. Certainly something like this offers some perspective and makes you look back in your corner. My mind and heart immediately went out to Mark and his family.” Separating the sadness from the anguish was nearly impossible for the Toronto Blue Jays when they finished with an 11-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, and it wasn’t any easier on Sunday or Monday when they opened a series against the Oakland Athletics with a lackluster 5-1 loss. Baseball doesn’t stop, which can make the games a necessary escape from reality or coming to terms with the incomprehensible all the more difficult. Charlie Montoyo learned the hard way back when his son Alex was in hospital fighting for his life and ran from Durham Bulls games to be by his side. Some of that hit Montoyo when he learned of Julia’s death and prompted him to hand over the reins to bench coach John Snyder so he could help care for Bunjinxy in the clubhouse. “That’s what I felt the other day when I had to tell Mark to go inside to get the news,” Montoyo said. I said, “Okay, I’m done with this game, it’s more important to be with my friend.” Two Sundays earlier, the Montoyo and Budzinski families were together for morning Mass in the dome, and “Julia was actually hanging out with Alex all day,” said Montoyo, who added that Budzinski’s faith was evident soon after. “Some people can say that, but to see it when something like that happens, he’s (a man of faith),” Montoyo said. “He’s strong in the way he dealt with it and he wrote a note to the team that got through it, to keep going and see you soon and all of that is incredible.” The Blue Jays discussed not playing Sunday when Montoyo said “you could tell everybody felt it,” while on Monday, there were new reminders of the loss as the Athletics observed Julia with a moment of silence while the Blue Jays they had her initials, JB. , engraved on their caps. There wasn’t much energy for them either, especially after Manoah allowed three runs in the first, one on a Stephen Vogt sacrifice fly and two more on an Elvis Andrus double just past a diving Matt Chapman at third base. Alejandro Kirk’s RBI single in the fourth sparked a rally, but solo shots by Ramon Laureano in the fifth and Vogt leading off in the sixth put the game out of reach before an announced Independence Day crowd of 24,403. The loss was the fourth in a row and the third since they learned of Julia’s death. “I don’t want to make it an excuse, but we feel it, of course, because we’re human and we’re a team and we care about Bud,” Montoyo said. “We feel it. But today it was more our approach at the plate, I think.” The five runs (four earned) against Manoah were a season high on a night when his fastball average of 92.4 mph was well off his season mark of 94. He didn’t have much to say about an outing he planned “to throw in the trash can, forget about it and move on,” and he wasn’t sure how the recent gloom had affected the team’s play. “Me personally, I just tried to come out and give the team a spark and I didn’t do it,” he said. “So for tomorrow, bring some energy to the dugout and get this thing rolling.” There is no option there because the program continues to run. Biggio recalls feeling “an aura around our dugout and our clubhouse” that he described as “just heavy” and how “all of our minds and hearts were immediately away from this game that we were playing.” Although Budzinksi’s role is as a first base coach and his duties include working with the outfielders, he affects players throughout the roster. Biggio takes extra flyballs with him as part of the defensive game around the diamond and praised him for his preparedness and dedication to his players. “He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in this game,” Biggio said. “He’s always positive and to be so positive all the time in this game when it’s so easy to be negative says something about the type of person he is.” That’s the type of person you want others to care about, especially in a time of tremendous sadness like the one he and the Blue Jays are going through right now.
