Three Key Things: Blue Jays take two of three from Seattle behind strong starting pitching

Like I mentioned earlier, the Blue Jays were the better team this week. Plain and simple. With that being said, however, they should’ve swept this series.

The starting pitching was elite

After watching Bowden Francis and Kevin Gausman post rough pitching lines in the Bronx last weekend, it was extremely encouraging to watch the clinic that Toronto’s starting pitchers put on this week. Between Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, and Yusei Kikuchi, they pitched 19.1 innings allowing 12 hits, 2 earned runs, and 23 strikeouts.

Berrios has already built quite the resume in only three starts this season, holding a 1.45 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP through 18.2 innings pitched. Berrios was effective and efficient on Monday night; all four hits that he allowed were singles, he pitched three 1-2-3 innings, and had two innings in which he only faced four batters. We’re now starting to see Berrios rewrite the narrative of his contract extension, as the positives outweigh so many of the negatives.

Bassitt had the best start of his young season, pitching 6.2 innings and allowing five hits, one run, four walks, and eight strikeouts. In his previous two starts, Bassitt hadn’t pitched past the fifth inning and had given up eight earned runs total. John Schneider gave Bassitt a relatively longer leash as he threw 115 pitches on Tuesday night, but generating 13 total whiffs across five different pitches will earn you that right.

Speaking of whiffs, did you know Kikuchi had not had a whiff on his slider until Wednesday’s game? Well, he got six yesterday, part of his six-inning, one-run, nine-strikeout performance. Kikuchi hadn’t allowed nine strikeouts since April 15th, 2023 during a home start against the Rays. Against the Mariners, his fastball and slider reached max velocities of 97 and 92 mph, respectively, and his only mistake was walking the No. 8 batter, Dylan Moore and allowing the top of Seattle’s order to drive him in. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays have not scored a run this season while Kikuchi has been on the mound so that certainly didn’t help his cause either.

Chad Green – the closer

He gave up a home run in the first game of this series, but the Blue Jays relied on Chad Green to finish both of the two victories this week. Green has fallen under the radar quite a bit since being a Blue Jay, mainly because he missed the majority of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but his value is coming into play now more than last season. With Erik Swanson and Jordan Romano out (and on the mend!), Green has pitched three high-leverage outings and has allowed only one single through six at-bats, and he’s posted a 3.18 ERA in five total appearances.

Green and Yimi Garcia (1.59 ERA, 0.529 WHIP, 12.7 K/9) have filled in nicely as the primary high-leverage arms, and it’ll spoil Blue Jays fans to know that these guys will still be there when Swanson and Romano return.