TORONTO – Bizarre though it may sound so soon after the Blue Jays demoted their opening-day starter, the top of this team’s starting rotation looks really good right now.
In Kevin Gausman, they have an ace. With a 2.48 ERA over his last 10 starts, Jose Berrios is in the midst of a bounce-back season. And as Chris Bassitt showed again in the Blue Jays’ 3-2 win over the Astros Wednesday, he’s fully capable of shutting down MLB’s best teams, too.
A pinch-hit single from Alejandro Kirk gave the Blue Jays a hard-earned lead in the seventh inning and home runs from Bo Bichette and Brandon Belt kept the game close early, but more than anyone else, Bassitt was responsible for the Blue Jays’ second consecutive win.
The right-hander pitched eight innings of two-run ball on just 81 pitches, allowing a two-run home run to Yordan Alvarez and little else. He struck out five without walking a hitter and lowered his season ERA to 3.29. He’s now tied with Gausman atop the MLB leaderboard for innings pitched, with 82 apiece.
With results like these, the Blue Jays have reason to be thrilled with the stabilizing presence Bassitt’s offering in the first year of the three-year, $63-million deal signed last off-season. Without his presence, the struggles of Alek Manoah would have been even tougher to overcome. As it stands, the Blue Jays are 35-28 heading into Thursday’s series finale with the Astros.
Of course, compared to the last time he started, this outing was relatively routine for Bassitt. After facing the Mets in New York last Friday, he flew back to Toronto where his wife, Jessica, was in labour. She gave birth on Saturday, the following day.
“Perfect weekend complete,” the pitcher tweeted afterward. “Momma and Colson are doing great.”
By Sunday, Bassitt was at Rogers Centre throwing his regularly scheduled bullpen session to Danny Jansen, who was in town rehabbing from a groin injury. Whatever they did worked, as Bassitt delivered his ninth quality start of the season.
As for Jansen, he’s making real progress from the groin injury that’s sidelined him for 13 games. On Thursday, he’ll join the Blue Jays’ triple-A team for a weekend rehab assignment and if all goes well, he could be activated by the time the Blue Jays open a series in Baltimore next week.
The Blue Jays will be busy in the meantime, with one game remaining against the Astros before the Twins visit for the weekend. And in the months ahead, there’s plenty of work to do both on and off the field, and as the trade deadline approaches. Yet, thanks to Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios, this rotation looks capable of winning series in October, should the Blue Jays do enough in other areas to get there.
