As a team, Toronto Blue Jays hitters are averaging 3.93 pitches seen per plate appearance this season, a shade off the league average of 3.95. Generally speaking, working the opposing pitcher is a good thing, as the more pitches he throws, the more likely he is to wear down and make a mistake. Clubs tend to value batters who see a lot of pitches.
Bo Bichette does not step into the batter’s box looking to grind down the man on the mound. The 21-year-old shortstop heads to the plate intent on swinging as aggressively as possible and, in case you haven’t noticed, he does not get cheated on a swing very often.
Yet, despite owning a swing percentage of 52.6, well above the league average of 47.0 per cent, Bichette sits second on the Blue Jays in pitches seen at 4.17 per plate appearance, trailing only Cavan Biggio’s 4.38. For context, the uber-disciplined Justin Smoak sits at 4.13. So Bichette is making the pitchers who face him work, even if he’s not necessarily working them.
Case in point was his remarkable 13-pitch at-bat against Austin Pruitt in Thursday night’s 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Bichette swung at 10 pitches, fouling nine of them off, including five out of the strike zone. The final pitch Pruitt sent his way, a middle-away fastball at 92.4 m.p.h., travelled 393 feet to right field at 101.1 m.p.h., off the bat for his ninth homer.
In this era of static baseball, it’s the type of at-bat we’re so here for.
Now, Bichette isn’t swinging away recklessly. Pruitt started him out with a pair of fastballs off the plate away and quickly fell behind 2-0. Once up in the count, look at the swing he took at a middle up heater.
He just missed it – although Rays pitchers should have taken note at the type of swing he took 2-0 – and that was the first of seven straight foul balls, a streak interrupted only when Bichette took a slider for ball three. Pruitt followed that up by throwing another chase slider and this time nearly got him to swing atop it, but he just got a piece. Credit to home-plate umpire Doug Eddings for seeing the ball skim the dirt before Travis d’Arnaud trapped it.
Pruitt then went back to the heater, one fouled off, the next over the wall.
Bichette saw eight pitches in his next at-bat during the second inning, when he hit into a forceout, before a first-pitch groundout in the fifth. In all, he saw 22 of the 81 pitches Pruitt threw over five innings of one-run ball, or 27 per cent of work Thursday.
Up 2-0 again in the seventh, Bichette hit his second homer of the night, when waivers star Oliver Drake doubled up on the splitter, left it middle-in and watched it sail over the left-field wall for a two-run shot that tied things up 4-4.
Untied quick
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo turned to Buddy Boshers in the bottom of the seventh after Bo Bichette’s second homer tied it, seeking a lefty-lefty matchup against Austin Meadows. The reliever’s second pitch was a hanging curveball that sailed over the left-centre field wall to put the Rays ahead for good.
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Thornton’s night
Trent Thornton looked to be headed for a good night after his first time through the lineup, allowing only a hit and a hit by pitch while striking out the side in the third inning. Good stuff. But as has happened to him of late, things unravelled in the fourth although he wasn’t helped by his defence.
After an Austin Meadows leadoff double, Tommy Pham hit a grounder to short that Bo Bichette fielded and threw a bit wide of first base. Justin Smoak gloved it and dropped a tag on Pham, but the ball came loose and rolled into the outfield, allowing Meadows to score the tying run. Eventually, a Kevin Kiermaier blooper just beyond the reach of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., plated a go-ahead run.
In the fifth, Thornton got himself into trouble again and his night came to an end on a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Travis d’Arnaud. He finished with three walks and two hit batters along with four hits allowed in 4.2 innings.
Vladdy is The Matrix
Tommy Pham is an adventure in the outfield and his decision to try and scoop Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s sinking liner in the first inning was a bad idea. The ball got behind him and Guerrero, extra bags in his sights, turned for second and then, somewhat unwisely, headed to third, even as Kevin Kiermaier retrieved the ball and fired it in.
By all rights, Guerrero should have been cooked. But then he channelled his inner Neo to evade a tag by Joey Wendle.
The wild slide went for naught as Rowdy Tellez grounded out to end the inning.
Not how you do it
Left-fielder Derek Fisher dropped a routine Nate Lowe fly ball he was camped under in the sixth, allowing Avisail Garcia to easily score from third base and extend the Rays lead to 4-2. An RBI single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., had just made it a one-run game.
In the seventh, a Travis d’Arnaud comebacker to Jason Adam with Tommy Pham at third led to a rarely seen 1-5-2-5-3-6 fielder’s choice. The goal for defenders is to get the out within one or two throws. This is not what you want.
