BALTIMORE – As Jose Berrios pitched deeper into Wednesday night’s game and the hit column on the Camden Yards scoreboard remained at zero, intrigue developed on multiple fronts for the Toronto Blue Jays.
In 46-plus years of franchise history, only Dave Stieb has authored a no-hitter. That performance happened in Cleveland nearly 33 years ago and while the likes of Roy Halladay, Brandon Morrow and Marco Estrada have made serious bids in the years since, only Stieb has ever completed nine hitless innings for the Blue Jays.
Once Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a clean single to centre field, it became apparent that Berrios would not be joining Stieb in franchise history. But even then, the stakes were high for the Blue Jays. Rutschman represented the tying run and the heart of Baltimore’s lineup was coming up.
For the Blue Jays to beat the Orioles for the first time in 2023, they’d need more from Berrios – not a no-hitter necessarily, but at least another inning or two of shutdown pitching. Soon enough, the Blue Jays got just that as Berrios stranded the Rutschman single by retiring the next three hitters.
Those seven one-hit innings earned Berrios the chance to pitch in the eighth for the first time this season. He recorded two outs while allowing two more singles before giving way to Tim Mayza, who escaped by inducing a grounder from Baltimore’s hottest hitter, Gunnar Henderson. Closer Jordan Romano allowed a run on three singles in the ninth but still recorded the three outs the Blue Jays needed on the way to a 3-1 win.
Not only was the Berrios start an important one for a 38-31 Blue Jays team that entered play Wednesday just 6-16 against other AL East teams, it comes at a time that the Blue Jays’ bullpen has been heavily taxed. Toronto’s relievers pitched five innings Tuesday after Chris Bassitt’s early exit and with a bullpen game coming Friday or – perhaps more likely – Saturday in Texas, there are many more innings to cover in the coming days.
There’s no doubt Berrios had lively stuff Wednesday, with a fastball topping out at 95.9 m.p.h., but his command of his change-up and breaking ball allowed him to induce weak contact from the Orioles. Along with five strikeouts and seven groundball outs, Berrios generated three easy pop ups for his infielders.
In the view of pitching coach Pete Walker, it’s because of the right-hander’s ability to locate all his pitches in the lower part of the strike zone that his ground ball rate has spiked from 40.3 per cent a year ago to 49.1 per cent this season. And since you can’t hit a ground ball out of the park, it’s no surprise to see that Berrios is allowing far fewer home runs (0.93 per nine, down from 1.52 per nine in 2022).
Offensively, the Blue Jays didn’t achieve the breakout they’ve been seeking – far from it, in fact – but thanks to Berrios, three runs on nine hits were enough.
With one out in the sixth inning, George Springer broke a scoreless tie with a no-doubt, 437-foot home run to left field. Two innings later, after the no-hit bid had ended, the Blue Jays added two more runs thanks to RBI doubles from Whit Merrifield and Bo Bichette.
Many nights, that wouldn’t be anywhere near enough offence but the Blue Jays now have a chance to win a road series against one of their main competitors in the American League wild-card race when the series wraps up with Yusei Kikuchi on the mound against Tyler Wells Thursday afternoon.
No-hitter or not, that’s a credit to Berrios.
