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| This photo speaks to my experience of watching Yusei Kikuchi pitch, though I acknowledge that that experience will be unique to each of us |
Well, phooey! Yusei Kikuchi and those who followed in his strange wake (Phelps, Garcia, Richards), allowed but three scattered hits (and, though no fewer walks, also no more of them) yet the Blue Jays' bats could plate but a single run on their eight hits. As pleasing as it is to see Alejandro Kirk reach on not one but indeed two infield singles (please ponder this), and for Vladdy to go two-for-three-with-a-walk after some tough games, it cannot be but a source of minding that the Blue Jays left so many runners on. And poor Bo Bichette, who has been much improved defensively this season, and who definitely saved a run with a lovely play to end the third, but who put the winning run on second with a wayward through that he rushed when he really needn't have at all . . . I saw a headline about Bo "taking responsibility for his errors" but I mean, this is silly to talk about. I think he would have rather thrown it better, if that's what anyone is concerned about (and Vladdy, I'm sure, would tell you he could/should have probably scooped that, tricky hop though it certainly was). But with all of this said, the fundamental thing about this game is that it was a Yusei Kikuchi game, which is to say that it is at once literally describable and yet, in a larger sense, resistant to all classification. My wife has started a Samsung Note on her phone in order to create a record of how it feels to be present near the baffling (and yet not trying) ordeal of Yusei Kikuchi's pitching; I am so glad that he is with us this season, so that we might be nearer his mystery.
KS
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