Blue Jays’ Chris Bassitt avoids injury after scare in win over White Sox

TORONTO — The Blue Jays have been relatively lucky on the injury front so far this season.

For example, after second baseman Santiago Espinal was hit in the wrist with a pitch last week in New York, X-rays came back negative and he was available off the bench Monday. The Blue Jays placed their first player on the injured list since the season began when reliever Adam Cimber landed on the 15-day IL with a right rhomboid strain Monday, but it’s an injury the team is hopeful will only require a minimal IL stint.

Later on Monday, the Blue Jays may have avoided yet another injury.

With one out in the seventh inning, starter Chris Bassitt bounced a first-pitch changeup to White Sox centre fielder Luis Robert Jr. The Blue Jays right-hander then motioned to the dugout and manager John Schneider came out along with team trainer Voon Chong.

Bassitt exited following 6 1/3 innings, after holding the White Sox to two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and three walks, with what the Blue Jays called “right lower back tightness.” But Bassitt didn’t immediately go down into the clubhouse, instead hanging around in the dugout. Schneider said afterward he viewed that as a positive sign.

After the game, Bassitt said he started feeling tightness during his pregame bullpen and it lingered throughout the outing. By the seventh, during an inning that was getting lengthy, it had gotten tighter so after he bounced the pitch, he “erred on the side of caution a little bit,” and came out. Still, he was emphatic that the issue is nothing to worry about moving forward.

“I’m good. I’m not concerned about missing not even a bullpen, so I’m all right,” Bassitt said.

It’s another sigh of relief for the Blue Jays. It also meant an injury didn’t spoil their 5-2 comeback win over the White Sox that saw Cavan Biggio hit a three-run home run to cap off a four-run fourth inning that turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead. The Blue Jays added another run in the seventh when Matt Chapman hit an RBI double.

A bad prognosis for Bassitt also would’ve put a damper on another strong outing from the right-hander. Since giving up nine runs in his first start against the St. Louis Cardinals, Bassitt has a 2.19 ERA and has gone at least six innings in his last four starts, allowing no more than two earned runs in each. What Bassitt’s most pleased with since that first start in St. Louis is that he didn’t panic and let things spiral.

“You can always turn a really bad outing into a snowball where it’s like all right, you have three bad outings and it’s like, how do you get back on track? So just completely flushing the first outing and … just trusting my ability was the key,” he said.

Nate Pearson earns call-up

Nate Pearson sat in the Blue Jays dugout before the game, staring out at the field, and smiled.

“It’s good just to be able to be here early in the year, help the team out,” he said. I’m excited.”

It’s been a somewhat arduous journey for the former top pitching prospect, but Monday, the 26-year-old right-hander was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo as the corresponding move to Cimber’s IL stint.

Now strictly in a relief role, Pearson got off to a strong start in Buffalo, pitching to a 2.16 ERA and, crucially, recording 16 strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings. The velocity on his fastball has been routinely hitting 98-99 mph and he’s been throwing his slider and curveball for strikes, too.

Attacking the zone and getting ahead of hitters was the message the Blue Jays staff left with Pearson when he was optioned after spring training. The reports Schneider had received from Buffalo on Pearson said he was doing exactly that, making him their preferred choice when a spot opened in the bullpen.

“I think just get ahead early, attack hitters, try to get them out as quick as I can whether it’s a strikeout, groundball, weak contact,” Pearson said about his focus in Triple A.

This isn’t Pearson’s first time in the majors. He debuted as a starter in 2020 and was up briefly in 2021, but he has lost most of the last two seasons to injuries. In that span, he’s transitioned from a starter to a bulk pitcher to now a reliever. Though he’s pitched in relief in short stints with the Blue Jays previously, he’s found comfort this year in honing in on his specific role.

Plus, after back-to-back seasons spent dealing with ailments ranging from sports hernia to mononucleosis to a lat strain, Pearson has found peace in simply letting things play out how they may. In that way, Pearson said he’s grown mentally since the last time he was on a big-league mound at the end of the 2021 season.

“Just more at peace,” he said. “Accepting whatever outcome as long as I’m competing, there’s definitely a lot of peace in that. I’m healthy and feel good. That makes me happy just to be able to be here and help the boys out early in the year.

“Last two years, I haven’t made it out of spring training, so we’re already off to a good start.”

Pearson didn’t pitch Monday, but Schneider said in a perfect world, his first appearance will come in a clean inning, just to ease him in. With a fastball in the upper-90s, Pearson gives Toronto a hard-throwing arm for middle innings for their bullpen that is the equivalent of throwing the kitchen sink at teams, with his combination of speeds and styles. After doing exactly what the Blue Jays asked of him in Triple A, Pearson will have a chance to do it in the majors.

“We feel comfortable putting him in anywhere, so whatever the situation is, whatever the game state dictates, we’ll kind of go from there, but he’s here for a reason, he’s got electric stuff and will trust him in any spot,” Schneider said.

Montoyo returns as bench coach with White Sox

Former Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo made his first return to Toronto since he was fired by the organization last July. Montoyo was hired to be the White Sox’s bench coach under manager Pedro Grifol over the offseason.

Before the game, Montoyo was seen greeting several members of the Blue Jays staff on the field. The 57-year-old had a .500 (236-236) record over three and a half seasons as the Blue Jays manager, beginning in 2019 through July 13, 2022, when he was let go and replaced by Schneider.

Schneider first joined Montoyo’s staff in 2019 as a major-league coach before becoming the bench coach by the 2022 season. With Montoyo back in town, Schneider said he’ll always be grateful to Montoyo for giving him his first opportunity in the majors.

“Couldn’t be happier for him that he got the gig in Chicago,” Schneider said. “Looking forward to probably catching up with them at some point, whether it’s today or the series, but I think back to just him as a person, you know, being a good human being, first and foremost. And understanding that the reality of the job is what it is, but thankful for the opportunities he gave me.”

(Photo: Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)