TORONTO – After two starts that immediately went sideways, Chris Bassitt finally looked like himself Thursday.
Facing the Tigers on an unseasonably warm night at Rogers Centre, Bassitt’s velocity was up across the board. That helped him generate whiffs on five different pitches on the way to a season-high seven strikeouts. Plus, after some early-season issues with PitchCom technology, Bassitt established a better rhythm and avoided pitch clock violations altogether.
It’s a big development for Bassitt and his new team, but it wasn’t enough on a night the Blue Jays struggled offensively. With Matt Chapman ill and on the bench, the Blue Jays managed only eight hits, seven of which were singles, on their way to one run. With that, the Tigers escaped with a 3-1 win in a series the Blue Jays had visions of sweeping.
“To finish it off is tough against any team,” manager John Schneider said. “But as the season goes on, to finish those series off, it’s going to happen. I wasn’t looking past tonight to Tampa Bay. I think that it just wasn’t our night.”
Still, Bassitt’s turnaround is significant considering he opened the season as their No. 3 starter after signing a three-year, $63 million deal only to stumble early. After his start against the Angels Friday, he acknowledged he wasn’t right mechanically.
Yet he appeared more comfortable Thursday and it showed on the radar gun, where his sinker averaged 92 m.p.h., compared to 91.2 m.p.h. through two starts, while his four-seam fastball averaged 93.4 m.p.h., up from 92 m.p.h.
“My stuff has returned back to normal,” Bassitt said. “Velo was up on basically every pitch that I need to be up. So the sharpness was there.”
Asked what difference added velocity makes for him, Bassitt said it gives him more room for error on slower pitches like his curve.
“It opens up that window for mistakes at like 70 m.p.h. to 75 m.p.h,” he said. “I can make a lot more mistakes and completely get away with them.”
As for PitchCom, he said “that’ll never be an issue again” now that he knows from experience how to program the device.
All told, Bassitt allowed two earned runs on four hits over six innings of work, walking three to go along with his seven strikeouts. He threw 107 pitches, the last of which came after manager John Schneider kept him in the game to face the left-handed hitting Akil Baddoo – an endorsement of Bassitt’s ability to pitch deep into games.
“You trust that he’s going to make the right pitch in the right spot,” Schneider said. “That was his last hitter no matter what.”
It’s the kind of performance the Blue Jays are counting on from Bassitt all year, and his Toronto debut went a long way toward easing any doubts caused by his first two outings.
“That’s what we can expect from him when he’s eating through a lot of innings,” Schneider said. “He’s really good at reading hitters’ swings and not afraid to throw any pitch in any count.”
At the plate, the Blue Jays had few answers for Spencer Turnbull and the Tigers’ bullpen. Cavan Biggio scored on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. single in the third inning and Brandon Belt would later double, but it all amounted to just one run.
Even before first pitch, there were some developments of note at field level. A few minutes before the game started, the Blue Jays made a late lineup change, with Santiago Espinal replacing Chapman, who was scratched due to a viral illness.
“It’s more or less like a stomach bug,” Schneider said afterwards. “It’s been going around a little bit. It’s tough to have him out of the lineup right now, but hopefully, he should be good to go (Friday).”
Soon after that announcement, the Blue Jays honoured Miguel Cabrera with a set of four framed photographs from the day he hit career home run No. 500 against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Presenting the award ahead of the Tigers’ final game in Toronto this year were longtime teammate Victor Martinez, now a special assistant for the Blue Jays, and first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Later, there was intrigue in the Tigers’ dugout as manager A.J. Hinch removed shortstop Javy Baez from the game after the shortstop forgot how many outs there were in the second inning. Collectively, the Blue Jays have worked hard to avoid such mental lapses and generally, those efforts have paid off with far cleaner baseball.
But good intentions only help so much when your bats don’t deliver, so the Blue Jays fall to 8-5 on the season heading into their weekend series against the undefeated Rays. Now 13-0, the Rays have tied for the longest undefeated streak to start a season since 1900. To say they pose a far tougher test than the Tigers would be an understatement.
“Obviously it’s been a historical run for our whole sport,” Bassitt said. “They’re a hot team. It’s a good test early.”
“Uniquely hot,” Schneider said of the Rays Thursday afternoon. “They’re obviously a good team. They’re a complete team. And they’re playing a good brand of baseball, right now. It’s going to be a fun series.”
