TORONTO — With the Rogers Centre crowd on its feet, Kevin Gausman and other Blue Jays leaning out of the dugout, clapping and slapping their hands on the dugout railing, Chris Bassitt threw a third-pitch curveball to Sean Murphy, who swung through the perfect parabola.
The crowd cheered, stadium horns blared and Bassitt pumped his fists and walked off the mound toward Alejandro Kirk, who was waiting with open arms to congratulate the Blue Jays starter on his shutout over the Atlanta Braves in a 3-0 win Friday.
With his second career complete game, Bassitt became the first Blue Jays pitcher to throw a complete game of at least nine innings since Marcus Stroman did it on April 23, 2017. Bassitt is the first Toronto starter to pitch a shutout of at least nine innings since Mark Buehrle on June 3, 2015.
When he’s at his best, Bassitt keeps a lineup off balance by mixing his seven pitches, reading swings along the way and adjusting if needed. And that’s exactly what he was able to do against the National League-leading Braves’ lineup. Over nine innings, Bassitt scattered two hits, two walks and two hit batters while striking out eight on 103 pitches.
Advertisement
“His stuff was really good from the start,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “(He) maintained it throughout and you trust dudes like that to go out and finish the job, but I think just the location with everything, the movement on his sinker, sweeper, everything was just really on point.”
Bassitt downplayed the accomplishment, saying this was “just a game.”
“I don’t like to make a big thing out of these things, it’s a win,” he said. “That’s it. Team won, on to the next one. And that’s about it. Honestly.”
But his teammate, George Springer, was willing to heap praise on the pitcher.
“It just felt like he was in complete control of everything he threw,” said Springer, who hit a go-ahead RBI single in the fifth inning. “He seemed to throw sweepers and all sorts of Chris Bassitt stuff in counts that they weren’t expecting it, and obviously it’s a great result for him and obviously for us, as well.”
It may still be May, but Toronto is embarking on an important part of the season. The Blue Jays are staring down a stretch of 30 games in 31 days with 17 straight without an off day beginning Friday. After three against the Braves this weekend, Toronto’s opponents during this chunk of the schedule include the Yankees, Orioles, Rays and Twins. Following an off day on May 29, they finish out the 30-games-in-31-days stretch against the Brewers, Mets, Astros and, finally, Twins, again.
Hoo boy, right? As it stands now, all but one of those clubs has a winning record. The only team that doesn’t is the underperforming Mets, who could break out between now and when the Blue Jays visit Queens in early June.
The Blue Jays are approaching these few weeks with a focus on the micro level by taking it one game and one series at a time, and also on the macro level by acknowledging this is a time to lock in and play their best as they measure themselves against the rest of the top teams in the majors. That is precisely what they did against the Braves when they were opportunistic in scoring against a very tough pitcher in Braves ace Spencer Strider, who struck out 12 over 6 2/3 innings, while their defence was especially sharp, saving a few hits from dropping.
Advertisement
“It’s a great way to start the homestand and a series against a really good team,” Schneider said. “That’s the way you have to play against good teams, and we’re totally capable of doing it and it was really good to see that in the first game here.”
That this period of play comes immediately after the Blue Jays went 3-6 on their recent road trip, getting swept by the Red Sox and Phillies with a sweep of the Pirates in between, heightens the urgency to get back to playing consistent, winning baseball. The upside to the stretch of 17 straight games is that it begins with 10 at home. To Schneider’s point, the Blue Jays have played the fewest home games of any MLB team this season, but when they have been at the Rogers Centre they’re 10-3.
Friday’s win began as a pitchers’ duel between Strider and Bassitt, who’s now been Toronto’s most consistent pitcher since his forgettable first outing.
The starters traded zeros for the first four innings. After Bassitt escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, the Blue Jays struck first in the bottom of the frame when Springer, back from a viral illness, hit an RBI single to left field that scored Whit Merrifield. The Blue Jays tried to score two on the play in a chaotic sequence where Kevin Kiermaier took off for home as Springer was running to second on the throw home, but upon review, Kiermaier was tagged out. The Blue Jays did add an insurance run on a passed ball in the seventh and then Daulton Varsho homered in the eighth inning to put them up 3-0.
With each run his team scored, Bassitt was able to approach the Braves’ lineup more aggressively, he said. He credited a solid game plan as the reason why he was able to cut through Atlanta’s lineup.
“I pretty much executed it,” he said. “I’m not saying flawlessly, by any means, just because our defence was unbelievable tonight. I don’t know how many hits they took away but overall it was just execution.”
Advertisement
With two out in the eighth inning, Schneider walked to the mound to check on Bassitt, who was about to face Braves leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. for the fourth time. Today’s game is dominated by numbers and what they say about a pitcher facing a lineup three or four times, not to mention how good relief arms are, but the Blue Jays manager still knew Bassitt deserved to stay in the game. The mound meeting was simply the manager checking in. Schneider asked him what his plan was for Acuña and Bassitt said sinker away.
“I said, ‘Go get him,'” Schneider said. “He’s the type of dude that you immediately trust him because of the prep that he does, and I think just by watching how he was executing, it made it pretty easy.”
Bassitt made it look easy when he got Acuña to pop out to first base on the first pitch.
Sitting at 91 pitches, Bassitt returned for the ninth inning. Matt Olson grounded out before Bassitt struck out Austin Riley and Murphy to put an exclamation point on a sensational outing.
It was Bassitt’s finest yet with the Blue Jays and, more significantly, it got his team off to a good start at the beginning of an important stretch of schedule.
“Tonight, that’s the best version of Chris Bassitt,” Schneider said. “It’s really unique to have a guy adjust on the fly, in-game. Just the way he manipulates the ball, it’s just really cool to watch him. Competing is a big part of his game and we knew that when we signed him, and I think it was just really evident tonight that he didn’t want to back down from any challenge.”
(Top photo of Alejandro Kirk and Chris Bassitt: Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)
