2022 Game Seventy-One: Brewers 5, Blue Jays 4

Trent Thornton wasn't even supposed to be here today

Here's another Yusei Kikuchi start where you look at the final score, and you think, Kikuchi must been at least okay then, right? Reader, he was not! Five runs (only two earned, in fairness) in just two innings, and a forty-pitch first that made it clear we were going to need a lot of innings from the bullpen no matter what else happened from there. Thornton worked a scoreless pair, and then young Max Castillo allowed just a hit and two walks in four to take it the rest of the way. The Blue Jays "battled back" one might say with home runs from Matt Chapman and Bo Bichette, and yet . . . and yet. I was wondering if maybe a face-saving stint on the Injured List might be in Yusei Kikuchi's near future as he tries to figure it out (left elbow tightness can mean a lot things) but he insists he's fine. I have nothing but sympathy in my heart for Yukei Kikuchi and his extraordinary plight, but I think I would feel a whole lot better with Max Castillo taking his turn in the rotation until things settle down a bit for Yusei, whose fastball could, in any given instance, go absolutely anywhere (like off of Andrew McCutchen's bat behind him, over the shoulder, for a foul ball, which may or may not have occurred [did occur] in Saturday's sad affair).  

KS