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At some point in the past year and change, the Blue Jays strength shifted from a team of booming power bats to a formidable group of shut-down pitchers.
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Expecting more of the same from the American League’s best rotation in 2023 was always going to be a big ask, albeit one central to the team’s plan to contend. And so it has been through the first dozen games, in which pitching coach Pete Walker has helped his group navigate injuries, inconsistency and dips in form to remain competitive.
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Through it all, the pitchers have held things together, waiting for the bats and arms to unite as one. The past two nights have at least shown a glimpse of what the team can be when that mix is right.
After a couple of lacklustre outings to start his season, Chris Bassitt got it together on Tuesday, doing his part in a relatively stress-free 5-3 Jays win over the Mariners. Boosted by a three-run third inning that was super-charged by a 431-foot Bo Bichette homer, plus two more runs in the fourth, the Jays would have all the offence they needed to start their first winning streak of the season.
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On the mound in front of a Rogers Centre crowd of 31,310, Bassitt did his part, going 6.2 innings, allowing five hits and just one run — a homer to Dominic Canzone in his final inning of work.
On the heels of self-professed “bad dog” of the current starting five — Jose Berrios — the Bassitt outing was a nice surge of momentum for a rotation that has been uneven in the early going.
Ace Kevin Gausman was excellent in his first start and couldn’t make it out of the second in his next one. Yusei Kikuchi has battled, but still hasn’t hit top form and, politely, No. 5 man Bowden Francis is a work in progress.
Such are the vagaries of the craft, Walker maintains.
“We certainly anticipated getting off to a good start after the spring, but I think it’s always interesting at the beginning of the year,” Walker said on Tuesday. “Some guys will start hot. Some guys are a little behind. It’s the nature of the beast.
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“You try to get everybody prepared as much as possible and off to a hot start, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
And Walker is of the mind that looks can be deceiving, even if the results seem clear.
He’s willing to use Bassitt as a case study. The veteran innings-eater was hit hard in each of his first two starts — both losses — but Walker figured it was just a matter of time before results matched the eye test.
“Sometimes you get good results early, sometimes you don’t,” Walker said. “His stuff has been as good as it was in mid-season form last year. He’s got his velocity up to 93 or 94 (m.p.h.) already and the action, the sinker, the spin … he’s in a tremendous place.
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“Honestly, he’s probably pitching as well as anybody on our staff. In the end, his numbers will be there, it’s just a matter of getting a couple of really good starts to get rolling.”
The first of those arrived Tuesday as Bassitt helped the Jays to their second win in as many nights over the M’s, their playoff nemesis from two Octobers ago. Bassitt allowed just one hit through five innings and ended up tossing 115 pitches, just one shy of his 2023 high.
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Overall, Walker has been encouraged with the work of his crew, which has included piecing together the high-leverage components of his bullpen while awaiting the return of late-inning studs Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson.
“You stay the course,” Walker said. “They all have a plan of attack and there’s no panic with the guys who are maybe not getting off to as good a start as they might have hoped. They know the numbers will be there.
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“So now it’s really a matter of getting into a routine. For the most part, we just have to continue to attack the strike zone. We have the stuff to navigate good teams.”
GOOD AS GAUS
Walker isn’t worried about Gausman’s suspect outing at Yankee Stadium over the weekend, when he lasted just 1.1 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) in a Jays loss to the Bronx Bombers.
“Obviously, that was strange,” Walker said. “We know his stuff, velocity-wise, wasn’t what it was before. It could have been a little bit of dead arm with the cold weather, but we certainly expect him to bounce back at our place and expect the (velocity) to jump back up.”
Walker is of the belief that a full spring in Florida and then transitioning to a frigid Yankee Stadium was a shock to the system and not just to Gausman.
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“Some guys really struggle with it,” Walker said. “For us, it was tough, especially with the breaking stuff and the splits. It didn’t act the same way. Another reason it’s nice to get back home.
“But I expect him to have another Gausman-like season.”
AROUND THE BASES
Bichette’s first homer of the season was a formidable blast, landing in the second deck after travelling 431 feet … The Jays counted 11 hits, the second consecutive night they reached double digits … The Mariners made things more interesting than necessary when Mitch Haniger belted a two-run homer off of Jays reliever Trevor Richards to pull the visitors within two runs.
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