With Bo, Blue Jays bounce back with 3-2 win
Bo returned to the Blue Jays lineup and Toronto returned to the win column! In his first game in nearly a month, the star shortstop had a hit and a run scored as the Blue Jays topped the Mets, 3-2, Saturday night from Sahlen Field. The victory snaps the club’s
Bo returned to the Blue Jays lineup and Toronto returned to the win column!
In his first game in nearly a month, the star shortstop had a hit and a run scored as the Blue Jays topped the Mets, 3-2, Saturday night from Sahlen Field. The victory snaps the club’s two-game skid and allows Toronto (25-20) to stay a half-game ahead of the Yankees for second place in the AL East division.
On the disabled list since August 16 with a right knee injury, Bichette finally returned Saturday to his customary position on the field and in the Blue Jays lineup, starting at shortstop and batting second. In the fourth inning, one of the game’s best young players provided that he was back.
After striking out in his first at-bat, Bichette jumped on a curveball and Seth Lugo and laced a single into left field that extended his interrupted hit streak to 10 games. When Travis Shaw followed by driving a double into the right-centerfield gap, Bichette took off! Flying around the bases, Bichette easily scored on the play and showed no signs of being hampered by the knee injury.
Despite scoring on the play, Bichette was forced to go back to third base when video review deemed the ball was got stuck under the outfield wall padding, turning Shaw’s RBI-double into a ground-rule double. Bichette would score later on Randal Grichuk’s infield single to tie the game at one.
🎶 Bo is back, tell a friend 🎶 pic.twitter.com/sDltnO3e9v
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 13, 2020
The go-ahead run was then scored an inning later by the newest Blue Jay, catcher Alejandro Kirk. Making his big-league debut and also playing in his first game above Single-A, Kirk walked in the fifth and scored on a sacrifice fly from Shaw, finally giving the slugger the RBI he should’ve had the inning prior.
Then in the sixth, Kirk picked up his Major League hit with a sharp single in the sixth inning.
First Game = FIRST @MLB HIT!
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 13, 2020
Welcome to The Show, @alejandro_kirk 🚀 pic.twitter.com/01fTzLyuWE
The Blue Jays’ eventual game-winning run also came in the sixth inning as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled off the glove of Michael Conforto in right field and advanced to third on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ground out. Jonathan Villar then rudely greeted Chasen Shreve by chopping the reliver’s first pitch through the pulled-in infield and into left field for an RBI single.
The Mets scored a run in the seventh to pull to within 3-2 before quite the interesting ending to the game in the ninth. With two outs, Rafael Dolis struck out Mets’ number nine hitter Amed Rosario on a ball in the dirt that skipped away from Kirk. Rosario raced to first base before Kirk could locate the ball and kept New York’s hope alive. But with the red-hot Jeff McNeil at the plate, Dolis fired a pick off attempt to Guerrero Jr., who immediately pointed to the Blue Jays dugout to ask for a review of the plate. Sure enough, the umpires determined upon review that Rosario was out and the game was over.
On the mound, Robbie Ray gave the Blue Jays his best start of the season with five innings of four-hit baseball. The southpaw retired the first seven batters he faced, including a strikeout of J.D. Davis in the first inning on a 97 mph fastball. He then got a pair of fly ball outs after New York finally put a pair of runners on base in the third inning.
Ray yielded a run in the fourth on Jason Marisnick’s two-out double down the left field line, but then got a ground out from Wilson Ramos with runners on second and third to limit the damage.
The game was the Blue Jays’ baseball-leading 22 one-run game. They are now 13-9 in those games as well as 11-7 at Sahlen Field.