PITTSBURGH – The last time Yusei Kikuchi pitched at PNC Park, he was struggling to find a role with the Toronto Blue Jays after being pulled from the starting rotation. A necessity on a bullpen day that Sept. 3 lined him up behind opener Trevor Richards and the left-hander struck out five in 2.1 innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 win, a flash of what the club felt could be his norm.
Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates once again some eight months later, Kikuchi continued to manifest all those visions for him, delivering 6.1-shutout innings in a 10-1 Blue Jays win that completed a three-game sweep.
The difference in standing for the 31-year-old between then – a 5.32 ERA and team record of 9-16 in the games he pitched in – and now – a 3.35 ERA and team record of 6-1 in his starts – couldn’t be more stark.
“Obviously I was disappointed last year,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “But that disappointment, I use that as fuel this year. I learned from everything last year and brought it to this year.”
Much as the entire team did here over the weekend, Kikuchi shook off an aberration showing against the Boston Red Sox at the front end of this nine-game road trip by ripping through the unlikely NL Central leaders. After waiting out a one-hour 35-minute rain delay, his command was erratic in the first, when he walked leadoff man Ke’Bryan Hayes before Bryan Reynolds drove a ball to the base of the wall in centre, where Kevin Kiermaier tracked it down.
From there, the worst damage against him came in the fourth, when a Carlos Santana comebacker caught him on the left biceps, deflecting toward Santiago Espinal at shortstop who made a slick play to throw out the runner. Kikuchi shook out his arm on the mound afterward but remained in the game, working around a Hayes leadoff single and Santana’s two-out walk in the sixth to maintain the zero.
“There’s no problem at all,” Kikuchi said of his arm.
Manager John Schneider came to get him after a one-out Miguel Andujar double in the seventh, with Yimi Garcia locking down the rest of the frame. Kikuchi allowed four hits and two walks while striking out three, leveraging his defence on a day he had just six whiffs in 44 swings.
That was plenty to leverage a Whit Merrifield RBI single in the first, the second baseman’s three-run homer in the third and Danny Jansen’s run-scoring groundout in the fifth before a crowd of 21,655. After a nervous eighth, during which Yimi Garcia gave up a run and left a bases-loaded, one-out mess that Jordan Romano had to clean up, Daulton Varsho added a two-run shot, Jansen an RBI double and Kiermaier a two-run shot in the ninth to ensure the Blue Jays headed into an off-day at 21-14.
They open a two-game series at the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday, when they hope the soreness in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s left wrist eases enough for the slugger to play.
“It’s a credit to the guys,” Schneider said of the Pirates sweep. “There was no panic. It is what it is in Boston, you move on and try to win the next series. Always tough to take all three and I think we kind of got back to more of what we’re used to doing with pitching, taking care of the ball and good at-bats.”
Kikuchi’s performance is a big part of it and he’s now allowed one run or less in five of his seven starts this season. Of note is the two times he’s had blips – a six-run in 4.1 innings mess April 9 in Anaheim and a five-runs-in-4.1 innings slog in Boston’s miserable weather last week – he’s immediately corrected.
“I take it all the way back to the off-season and the work that he did and he’s really seeing the benefits,” said Schneider. “Getting to where he did in the off-season and spring training and feeling comfortable with it just kind of allows him to keep doing it.”
Now, Kikuchi had good stretches last year, too, but what’s different this season is the way he’s locked into an approach since the beginning of spring training and sticking with it, as opposed to regularly looking for patches the way he did in that difficult 2022.
“More so than my pitching performances, I’m just glad the team’s winning,” said Kikuchi. “I’m glad I’m able to help the team earn wins.”
He did that against the Pirates, highlighting how far, in between visits to Pittsburgh, he’s come.
