TORONTO – This is what you’re supposed to do to teams during the so-called “soft” portion of your schedule.
The Toronto Blue Jays took care of business on Wednesday, outclassing the Washington Nationals in a 7-0 win in front of 39,303 at Rogers Centre. With that, the Blue Jays finished their six-game homestand against Washington and Cleveland with a 3-3 record.
It’s been talked about ad nauseum: The Blue Jays’ schedule contained five straight series in late August and early September against opponents with records under .500. Well, two of those series are over, but there’s still time for the club to build momentum.
The Blue Jays have alternated wins and losses over their past six contests and it goes without saying that they need to string together some W’s. The club entered play Wednesday 3.5 games back of a wild-card spot.
The formula on Wednesday worked nicely — right-hander Chris Bassitt twirled an absolute gem while the offence put up bunches of runs early and often to remove the tension that existed in Tuesday night’s dispiriting loss.
Bassitt continued his dominance at Rogers Centre with eight shutout innings. It was the eighth time this season that the right-hander tossed at least six scoreless frames, which leads the majors and is tied with Dave Stieb for second most in franchise history (Roger Clemens accomplished the feat nine times in 1997).
The Nationals only reached second base two times against Bassitt. In total, he allowed just three hits and one walk, while striking out three over his 110 pitches. Bassitt lowered his season ERA to 3.81 and his 165.1 innings rank sixth in MLB.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays got on the board in the first inning when Davis Schneider walked and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a single off Nationals starter Patrick Corbin. Alejandro Kirk drove in both runners with a double off the left-centre field wall to put the club up 2-0.
Kirk doubled again in the fourth and scored on Santiago Espinal’s liner to the opposite field. The Blue Jays catcher was once again in the middle of the scoring in the sixth, leading off the frame with a single and later scoring on Ernie Clement’s base hit up the middle.
Kirk added a sacrifice fly and went 3-for-3 on the day with three RBIs, while Espinal and Clement each recorded two hits.
Up next for the Blue Jays is a six-game road trip that begins on Friday with three games in Colorado followed by a series against the Oakland Athletics, owners of the worst record in baseball.
