2023 Game Thirty-Five: Blue Jays 10, Pirates 1

 

flourishing

Guess who pitched a four-hit, two-walk shutout into the seventh, and is now one of only a handful of pitchers in either league with six wins so far this season (pitcher wins are a bogus stat but not today they're not)? That's right, your favourite guy Yusei Kikuchi! Yimi made things awfully ticklish for a minute there in the eighth, but Jordan Romano bailed him out of it just as niftily as you like, and then the bats went as bananas as Yusei Kikuchi's glove was last season (you may recall that it looked like bananas): Varsho hit one into the Allegheny, Kevin Keirmaier hit one nearly that far, and Brandon Belt—who is the Blue Jays hottest hitter now, somehow—ripped one off the wall that may have been the hardest hit ball of the inning but ended up a slightly absurd single (it happens). It's hard to believe Whit Merrifield's three-run shot in the third was his first home run of the year, isn't it? It feels like he's been doing great! Which he has, but just not in this particular way (until now [let's go]). A much-needed sweep after the long disaster of Fenway Park! I am so pleased this one was delayed by rain until I was finished at judo! 

KS