KANSAS CITY – In theory, this should have been the ideal place for the Jose Berrios bounce-back season to begin. Facing a winless Kansas City Royals team in spacious Kauffman Stadium with an improved outfield defence behind him? It’d be tough to ask for much more.
Yet three of the first four hitters to face Berrios scored. In total, he allowed eight runs. And while last year’s struggles were fuelled in part by some bad luck on batted balls, there was lots of hard contact to go around Monday, with the Royals hitting Berrios’s pitches 100 m.p.h. or more 10 different times.
By night’s end, the Blue Jays had fallen to 1-3 on the season with a one-sided 9-5 loss. At least they finally have a home run.
At best, this might be considered a blip. A frustrating blip, but a blip. All teams are entitled to four-game stretches where they look out of sorts, of course. Even the best pitchers falter occasionally. And remember, there are still 158 games left.
Technically speaking, that’s all true. But does it really land? After a season in which Berrios posted a 5.23 ERA, and considering he’s on a $131 million contract that runs through 2028, it wouldn’t feel quite right to brush aside a start like this as small sample noise.
First of all, he allowed lots of hard contact as well as a pair of walks. Plus, on a night the Royals stacked their lineup with six left-handed hitters, Berrios left plenty of pitches up over the plate. Here’s where he threw fastballs against the Royals’ lefties Monday:
Now, expecting pitchers to have pinpoint command isn’t realistic, but Berrios will need better answers against left-handed hitters as the season unfolds. Last year, left-handed hitters hit him hard, batting .298 with an .865 OPS. Realizing that, teams stack lefties against Berrios, costing him the platoon advantage.
Granted, that was often the case last year and Berrios still looked dominant at times. There were positive moments Monday, as he struck out seven while pitching into the sixth inning. In his next start against the Los Angeles Angels Saturday, the Blue Jays will hope he can build on those positives.
As for the offence? One year after hitting 200 home runs, the Blue Jays may be a slightly less power-centric team, but this group still has a chance to rank among the league leaders in 2023 as Bichette’s ninth inning solo shot illustrated. So far, the approach has been disciplined, with six more walks against Kansas City Monday.
Still, the Blue Jays did enjoy two-hit games from Matt Chapman and Cavan Biggio on a night every one in their starting lineup reached base. It was the third multi-hit game of the season for Chapman while Biggio justified the Blue Jays’ choice to start him over Whit Merrifield by reaching base three times.
If the questions around this team revolved around the offence, their 1-3 record might be a little easier to stomach. Instead, back-to-back poor performances from Chris Bassitt and Berrios have the Blue Jays scuffling as they hand the ball to Yusei Kikuchi Tuesday.
