CLEARWATER, Fla. — Off the bat, Addison Barger’s 114.2 m.p.h. rocket on a 2-2 Aaron Nola sinker was both plenty far and plenty fair.

But with a powerful wind whipping right to left at BayCare Ballpark, the ball was picked up by the gusts well above the right-field foul pole. In the view of the umpiring crew, the ball veered foul before passing the pole. But depending on your vantage point, it arguably swept wide well beyond.

With no replay to challenge the on-field decision, loud foul ball it was.

“It got out quick, then the wind took it away,” Barger lamented. “I’m still a little salty about it.”

Still, the 25-year-old shook it off and dug in, fouling off a knuckle-curve before timing up a changeup for a line-drive single at 109.8 m.p.h. to right field. For someone trying to earn his way on to the Toronto Blue Jays roster in the final week of spring training, it was an impressive sequence against one of the game’s better starting pitchers.

“I didn’t feel like his fastball was playing the way it usually does so after that (foul ball), I was kind of confident in expecting off-speed and then just reacting to the heater,” Barger said of his reset in the batter’s box. “He threw me a changeup down, kind of the pitch I was looking for, especially after going pull-side on a heater.”

Like several of the players in Monday’s split-squad lineup that fell 4-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies, Barger is fighting for one of the Blue Jays’ available bench spots. Tyler Heineman is likely to grab one as the backup catcher and Davis Schneider, who cranked a full-count sinker out to right-centre off Nola in the fourth, may very well have the inside track on another.

Daulton Varsho’s uncertain status........

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