ATLANTA – Ten pitches and three batters into his latest gem, Jose Berrios appeared to be in some discomfort. He’d just struck out Marcell Ozuna when he wiped his brow and winced, prompting a charge to the mound by manager John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral. During the discussion, he made a line with his finger down his forehead but insisted he was fine and proceeded to shove for six innings in a 9-5 Toronto Blue Jays win over Atlanta.
The issue for Berrios wasn’t immediately known, but he was fighting through an illness last Sunday in Minnesota, when he threw six shutout innings on only 63 pitches in a 15-0 rout. Before his outing Saturday, Schneider said his ace right-hander was “a lot better” but “still feeling the effects” of the bug. That chase sinker to get Ozuna aside, he showed no signs of it, allowing a run on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts en route to his career-best 15th win of the season.
Berrios twice previously finished with 14 wins, in 2017 and 2019, the latter also the year he logged a personal-high 200.1 innings. A new benchmark in workload is also in range for him, as he’s at 176.1 innings in 2024 – good for fifth in the majors – and is in line to make four more starts this season.
Schneider said that “as of now,” the Blue Jays plan to remain on turn, at least through a three-game series beginning Monday with the visiting New York Mets, although it’s possible Jake Bloss makes a spot-start at some point to give the rotation some extra rest.
“Not going to force it,” said Schneider, “but if the opportunity presents itself, where (Bloss) is feeling good and throwing well and we can give guys an extra day, we’d definitely consider it.”
Given the current roll Berrios is on, he doesn’t look like someone in need of a break.
He went through a seven-start rough patch from mid-June to mid-July, allowing 28 earned runs on 38 hits and 17 walks in 37.2 innings over that span, but righted himself July 28 with a seven-inning, one-run gem against Texas.
A five-inning, six-run blip against the Yankees followed Aug. 3 but in his six outings since then, he’s allowed only seven earned runs on 30 hits and six walks with 36 strikeouts in 40.2 innings.
Better command of his sinker and increased use of an improving cutter have been instrumental in his turnaround, with Schneider adding that “he’s pitching with a great deal of confidence right now. When you have a veteran pitcher kind of rolling, it’s easy to do. He’s been really efficient with his pitches, too.”
Paced by two homers and four hits by Spencer Horwitz, an offensive onslaught helped along with some sketchy Atlanta defence behind Spencer Schwellenbach.
Horwitz opened the scoring with a leadoff homer in the second and then doubled up the lead to open the fourth, when two more runs came home on RBI doubles by Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfido, both after Addison Barger reached on a Luke Williams throwing error to extend the inning.
Horwitz added an RBI double in the fifth, took third on another error and scored on Will Wagner’s groundout. Wagner added three hits, including an RBI single that capped a three-run ninth that opened up a 9-1 lead.
Atlanta scored four times in the bottom half, all charged to Luis Frias in his Blue Jays debut, before Brendon Little came on to record the final two outs.
