Maple Leafs get away from rink to become Blue Jays for a day - Toronto Star

Rogers Centre visit a welcome relief for a team struggling at home.

Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller addresses the media on a day when his team took a field trip to the Rogers Centre, a welcome diversion from a difficult homestand.

There’s nothing like a trip to the ol’ ballpark to take away your woes.

At least that’s what the Maple Leafs hope, having visited the home of the Blue Jays, the Rogers Centre, on Thursday for some batting practice and off-field — or is that off-ice — workouts.

“It’s always fun,” said Leafs captain Auston Matthews, a pretty good baseball player as a youngster. “It always brings me back to my childhood, playing baseball. It’s cool.

“It’s a long season. It’s good to get your mind off hockey sometimes and just live life.”

The idea, hatched a little more than a month ago, was for the Leafs to have a look at the Blue Jays’ state-of-the-art workout facility. Fair to say they were wowed by it. But after they did that, and did some stretches on the field, they were pretty insistent on taking batting practice, which hadn’t been on the itinerary.

They had found a way to take their collective minds off their current five-game losing streak.

“We’re keeping it light,” said Matthews, his head turning when Darren Raddysh cracked a foul ball his way.

By then, the team’s media department had put up a couple of fences down the third-base side to protect the interview area.

The moment — for that matter the day — was a welcome moment of levity for a team that has hit the skids. They were like kids let loose on the playing field, hitting, running, throwing, shagging balls and dropping them.

“It’s awesome,” said forward Nick Paul, ducking as he spoke. “Balls are flying here. I know Toronto teams are tight so to be able to be at their facility and switch things up a little bit is good.”

Zack MacEwen, who had a goal and an assist in Thursday’s loss, was the team’s big hitter, hitting some home runs, including one to the second deck.

“He was in there for 40 minutes, he was hogging it,” said Paul, who would later homer. “But he’s a good athlete. Great game by him.”

As for the fish out of water — the guy who really didn’t look comfortable with a glove — that went to Brandon Duhaime.

“Duhaime has been horrible, and he looks the most like a baseball player,” Paul said. “The Europeans did OK. Willie (Nylander) slowed down the pitches so he could make contact.”

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Kevin McGran is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Bluesky @kevinmcgran