Game #2 Preview: Bassitt vs Civale

Your first place Blue Jays take on the last place Rays for game two of the season this evening! After yesterday’s big win, the Jays will look to make it two in a row at the Little Trop of Horrors. First pitch today is set for 6:50 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Now entering year two of his three year deal, Chris Bassitt is ready to get his season underway. His first year in blue went about was well as anyone could have hoped, as he made 33 starts and became the first pitcher since Marcus Stroman in 2017 to reach the 200 inning plateau. He won an AL-best 16 games and put up a strong 3.60 ERA, on his way to a 10th place finish in the Cy Young award voting.

At 34 years old last season, Bassitt managed to hold his strikeout rate and walk rate pretty much at his career norms, despite lost over half a mph on his fastball. However, his home run rate jumped more than a quarter per 9 innings. Thanks to the uptick and the high number of innings, Bassitt ended up tied for 13th in all of baseball in home runs allowed. As a result, his FIP was one of the worst of his career, coming in at 4.28. As a pitcher who has routinely beat his FIP by almost half a run, he’ll probably be fine if he’s in that range again this season.

Rays’ Starter

The Rays will go with 28 year old right hander Aaron Civale. Civale came over to the Rays at the deadline last year from the Guardians for prospect Kyle Manzardo. Civale was a fairly sought after starter at the deadline last year, doing quite well in the first half going 5-2 with a 2.34 ERA over 13 starts. He ended up starting 10 games for the Rays down the stretch, going 2-3 with a 5.36 ERA. He saw a massive uptick in strikeouts in Tampa, going from a 19% rate in Cleveland to a 29.3% rate in Tampa. But he got touched up for a few too many home runs and a bit of some bad clusterluck.

The Jays did get a quick look at Civale at the end of the season. With the Rays’ playoff position already set by this point, Civale came out and made one run through the lineup. Alejandro Kirk touched him up for a solo home run, but otherwise he left early and unscathed in advance of his hopeful playoff start. But he ultimately didn’t pitch for the Rays in their Wild Card round sweep at the hands of the Rangers, as he was set to go in game 3.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Justin Turner took a pitch off the hand yesterday. Don’t be surprised to see him get a rest day because of some swelling or something, with Daniel Vogelbach then likely sliding into the DH role.

The Rays are sending out a righty today and again tomorrow, with a lefty set to go on Sunday. So outside of potentially some movement around the DH spot, don’t expect to see much else change today or tomorrow. Maybe Brian Serven gets a start behind the plate.

Rays’ Lineup

Yandy Díaz was the bright spot for the Rays yesterday, collecting three hits. He was the only one to reach base more than once and he drove in both runs. Expect to see him back at the top of the lineup again today.

With the Jays starting the left handed Kikuchi tomorrow, expect to see the big turnover in the lineup tomorrow as opposed to today. Left handed hitting catcher Ben Rortvedt might get the start over the righty hitting René Pinto, but otherwise a repeat of yesterday’s lineup is likely happening.

The left handed hitting Austin Shenton may make his Major League debut today.

Yesterday’s Heroes

There were a few big performers for yesterday’s Opening Day. We’ll give the Monster Bat award to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. though, as he was the only one with 3 hits who also had 5 RBI. He picked up a pair of RBI hits in the Diamondbacks’ crazy 14 run third inning, and also included a 2-run home run in the first inning that got the D-backs on the board. They did end up winning, beating the Rockies 16-1.

Luis L. Ortiz pitched a clean 10th inning and a clean 11th inning on the road in Miami, starting each inning with the winning run 180 feet away. That’s a great way pile on the WPA numbers, and Ortiz is our WPA King with a fantastic .630 mark. He also got the pitcher win as well, as his Pirates took the lead and held on to it in the top of the 12th and beat the Marlins 6-5.

Pablo López was the only starter to go more than 6 innings yesterday, so he can have the Pitcher of the Day award. He went 7 full innings, allowing a solo home run that disrupted an otherwise stellar day. He gave up just 3 other hits, struck out 7 and walked home with the win in the Twins’ 4-1 victory over the Royals.

Find the Link

Find the link between Chris Bassitt, Billy McKinney and Marcus Semien.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant