Bichette and Chapman Homer, Jays Beat Mariners

Mariners 2 Blue Jays 6

Well, that was a little better. We saw a couple of home runs. We saw a couple of hits with RISP.

And we had an excellent start from Yusei Kukichi. 6 innings of 1 hit ball. He did give up 3 walks but had 6 strikeouts. Just an excellent start. He did come out of the game at 90 pitches, so maybe he could have gone one more, but then he gave up a walk and some hard contact (thankfully finding gloves) in the sixth, so I’m ok with us not pushing him.

We got some offense. Home runs from Bo Bichette (in the first) and Matt Chapman (in the second) put us up 2-0.

One more scored in the sixth. Zack Collins led off with a walk. An out later, Chapman also walked. And one more out later, Raimel Tapia singled bringing home Vinny Capra (pinch-running for Collins. I thought Chapman should have scored on the play. But, instead, the Mariners threw into second to hold Kirk to a single. I don’t think Rivera realized where the throw was going, or he would have sent Chapman.

Two in the seventh. Bo singled, and Vlad walked. After Teoscar Hernandez struck out, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. And then Alejandro Kirk, pinch-hitting, lined a single to center to score both.

We got more insurance in the eighth. Tapia and Springer each took two-out walks (Tapia should do more of that), and Bo drove in Tapia.

The Jays had 10 hits. Bo is the only batter to have more than 1 hit, and he had 3. Teoscar is the only batter who played the full game not to get a hit. He doesn’t look comfortable at the plate yet. Vlad reached base 3 times, with a hit, walk and hit batter.

The bullpen got the job done without Tim Mayza (who was put on the IL with left forearm inflammation, Andrew Vasquez takes his spot) and Jordan Romano (still being evaluated, but they haven’t said what part of the body they are concerned about).

• Trevor Richards had some troubles, giving up a home run and walking two while getting just one out.
• Yimi Garcia in with two on and gave up a single to load the bases but got a short fly out to right and a soft grounder that Bo made a very nice play.
• Ryan Borucki had a nice clean eighth with a strikeout.
• Ross Stripling got our blood pressure up in the ninth. He walked the first guy, then got a strikeout. The next batter got your perfect double-play ball right at Santiago Espinal, but Santiago let it go under his glove. Bad play at a terrible time. Then Ross got a very soft ground ball, but it went in between Santiago and Vlad, and suddenly the tying run was on deck. Ross got the soft contact but to the wrong place.
• Adam Cimber came in with the tying run on deck. He got an infield popup and a strikeout for his second save of the season. If Romano is out, Cimber will be getting more chances. Cimber only used 6 pitches.

We had some good defense too. Vlad made a very lovely over-the-shoulder catch running down the right-field line. Bo made 2 or 3 very nice plays.

Jays of the Day: Kikuchi (.329 WPA), Garcia (.135), Bo (.120) and Chapman (.100).

Suckage: Richards (-.143).

Tomorrow we have Jose Berrios (2-2, 5.82) going against the Mariners and Logan Gilbert (4-1, 2.13).