Chris Bassitt outduels Justin Verlander to lead 3-0 Blue Jays win ...
Blue Jays 3 at Mets 0
Another day, another opponent outside the AL East, another Blue Jays win, admist some unusual circumstances. With his wife in labour in Toronto, the last thing Chris Bassitt needed was a 90 minute rain delay holding him up from returning, but he made it count with 7.2 shutout innings over his former team to outduel Justin Verlander.
George Springer gave him a lead to work with right off the bat, staking him to a lead on the second pitch of the game:
Other than, the bats didn’t accomplish much against Verlander over the first 5 innings, though they had someone reach base in four of them. They did do a pretty good job of running his pitch count up, with 87 going into a sixth inning where they put him on the ropes.
It was their best opportunity and only real opportunity for some breathing room as Bo Bichette singled and Vladimir Guerrero walked to start the inning. But while it it took him 30 pitches to run his game total to 117, Verlander struck out the side around a single to load the bases by Whit Merrifield, and held the Jays to just the single run.
Fortunately, Bassitt was more than equal to the task of making the single run stand up. Mixing and matching his pitches as usual rather than overpowering like his opponent, Bassitt posted four clean innings in the first six in economical fashion, as he started the 6th under 60 pitches and looked like he might have another shutout in him. But the Mets were able to run his pitch count up a little bit bit in the last couple innings.
The only significant threat against him came in the third, after a leadoff single and stolen base by Mark Canha. Vladdy then mishandled a ground ball to put runners on the corners, with none out. But Bassitt bore down with a couple popouts sandwiched around a strikeout to keep the equalizing run a vexing 90 feet away.
As in his shutout in Atlanta, Bassitt benefited from some good defensive work and the good fortune of hard hit balls finding gloves. In the fifth inning, Canha smashed a line drive with double written all over it but that a cat-like Matt Chapman speared on the fly. Springer made a nice diving catch on Pete Alonso, and there were a few balls hit deeply to the warning track.
But all in all in he was excellent, and after getting the first two batters of the 7th to turn the lineup over a fourth time and having crossed 100 pitches, John Schneider opted to go to the bullpen for the lefty/lefty matchup and Tim Mayza to take on Brandon Nimmo. With a 2-2 count, Nimmo didn’t get set enough, and was issued an automatic third strike.
With the Jays clinging to the same 1-0 lead, Daulton Varsho bough the Jays some much needed breathing room in the 9th by tomahawking a two run drive which made it a lot easier for Jordan Romano to take it home with little drama in the 9th,
Super Jay of the Day: Bassit (+.575 WPA)
: None. Chapman (-.109) had the number but took a chunk of that back defensively.
Tomorrow, the Jays will look to continue their dominance outside the AL East and secure the series at 4:05 EDT with Jose Berrios taking on Tylor Megill and no rain in the forecast.
