Kikuchi Finds It, Right When the Blue Jays Needed Him To
It's been the impending storm all homestand. Five games in four days against the Tampa Bay Rays.
A Rays-Jays series often presents enough challenges for Toronto, but the extra game, the double header, and the precarious state of Toronto's pitching staff could've combined for impending doom. After a string of shaky starts and plenty of innings to fill, the Blue Jays needed Yusei Kikuchi. With a little help from his sliders, the lefty came through.
"It feels great," Kikuchi said. "Especially, you know, when the three or four past outings obviously weren't great."
Kikuchi delivered his strongest start in over a month, pitching past the fifth inning for the first time in eight starts and handing Toronto six innings of one-run ball.
After working ahead of Vidal Bruján in the second inning, Kikuchi smoothly pushed home on his 23rd pitch. As the sweeping slider torpedoed below the zone—and Bruján's flailing bat—the lefty starter was already walking off the mound.
Kikuchi has toyed with different variations and tweaks on his breaking pitches this year, switching from a cutter, to a cut-slider, to a diving sweeper. But on Thursday, he mixed it up. Instead of focusing on the latest tweak or development in the slider, Kikuchi threw his hard, horizontal cutter and mixed in the sweeping slider, too. Here are both of Kikuchi's sliders from Thursday, thrown in the same at-bat:
The Hard Slider/Cutter (~91 MPH):
The Soft Slider (~85 MPH):
"I was actually throwing a cutter and a slider tonight," Kikuchi said. "Obviously, we stayed away from throwing that cutter. I did throw it earlier in the year, but we stayed away from it and talking with Pete [Walker], we just thought that it might be a good time to start throwing that cutter again."
When Kikuchi's at his best, his slider is a weapon. His best stretch of starts in May this year (21.2 IP, 5ER) coincided with four consecutive outings where he allowed one or fewer hits on the slider. But it's also been an inconsistent delivery for Kikuchi, with in-zone rates fluctuating from 36% to 75% and hard-hit rates that ride the rollercoaster, too. Mixed in with a well-located splitter and a heavy dose of heat on Thursday, the new slider variance worked. Toronto's starter earned seven whiffs on his breaking pitches, an outstanding 41% called-strike plus whiff rate, and finished the start with eight punchouts.
With a little assistance from the Matt Chapman vacuum at third base, Kikuchi danced around back-to-back singles in the sixth and returned to the dugout with his best start in weeks. For the last month, Kikuchi's starts have been filled with high pitch counts, lengthy innings, and quick hooks. But on Thursday, the lefty finished his six strong innings on just 80 pitches, and probably could've come back out for a seventh, if needed.
The wins and losses this weekend matter, but Thursday’s start was as much about survival. The Blue Jays surviving a battered pitching staff and a demanding weekend, and Kikuchi preserving his place in the Blue Jays rotation. With a 4-1 win, both Toronto and Kikuchi are still standing.
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon