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| Leading off for your Toronto Blue Jays: natural light |
What a fine evening for baseball, this José Berríos Replica Jersey Night (seriously, they were giving away jerseys; these were no mere sherseys, friends [and a shersey would be fine]). Bo Bichette hit a first-inning solo homerun on a hanging curveball that looked like a homerun the second it left Chris Flexen's hand, like a truly astonishing hanger of a curveball, perhaps a record-setting one; Matt Chapman added a solo homerun to straightaway-centre on a far less juicy pitch but one that was no less parked; and Yusei Kikuchi had his third great start in a row. On Pete Walker's advice, Kikuchi is throwing about twice as many fastballs as he has previously cared to, and I have read that what has really freed Kikuchi up to go all-in on this approach is the team's assurance that they do not need to see immediate results from this new method; they merely need to see the new method. Yet the results, so far, have been fantastic: Kikuchi took a no-hitter into the fifth, and allowed only one hit and three walks through the six innings he ended up pitching. With Tim Mayza out, and Jordan Romano apparently kind of not feeling too great (he was up and throwing for a minute; I'm not sure what's going on right now), the late innings could be a slightly wild ride for a little bit, and we saw both the good (Garcia, Cimber) and the bad tonight (Richards, Stripling). But some nifty fielding (a smooth over-the-shoulder snag by Vladdy, some tricky hops handled expertly by Bo Bichette) helped us out of a couple ticklish situations before four late-inning runs (Alejandro Kirk knocking in Bo and Vladdy with a seventh-inning pinch-hit single stands out here) made this one a little more comfortable. A lot to like in this one!
KS
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