TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays batting order is so deep that Bo Bichette went nearly two weeks between home runs and, be honest, you probably didn’t even notice.
Even manager Charlie Montoyo admits that he hadn’t realized it had been so long.
“You don’t notice just because the lineup has been doing so well,” he said.
Well, there was no missing the end of Bichette’s dry spell on Tuesday night, when his three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth restored a lead lost in the top half of the frame on a three-run Ty France drive, leading the way to a 9-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
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Marcus Semien, whose two-run double in the second opened the scoring, added a three-run homer in the seventh that broke things open, leading to a rare stress-free finish to the Blue Jays’ eighth win in nine outings.
But it was Bichette’s no-doubter, his first since a 6-5 loss to the Yankees on June 15, that ensured another dominant outing by Robbie Ray wouldn’t be undone by one mistake in his final inning of work.
The lineup depth “allows everybody to know that no matter what’s going on, we got a chance to win,” said Bichette. “We just go out there, we compete until the last out. We obviously did a good job today of responding.”
Bichette found ways to be productive between homers, driving in eight runs and scoring seven while batting .267/.327/.333 over 11 games. Ordinarily, a dip from a No. 2 hitter as impactful as the star shortstop would have been felt, but with Semien continuing to demonstrate why he should be considered one of the top pending free agents, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., duelling Shohei Ohtani for MVP frontrunner status, George Springer just back and regular contributions from Teoscar Hernandez, Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Randal Grichuk and Reese McGuire, there hasn’t been any slack.
“Vladdy (creates trust and eases pressure) for everybody, whether he realizes it or not,” Bichette said. “So just to have someone like him and then obviously (Semien), he’s doing amazing. Tonight, great game. Teo’s always there. The whole team, really, everyday everybody shows up. It’s really fun to play on this team and wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Despite a major-league leading 65 runs scored, 15 homers and 53 RBIs — second only to Fernando Tatis Jr. among big-league shortstops — Bichette continues to chase the type of steady production he’s capable of.
Back in late May, he admitted that he’d felt “a little off” at the plate to that point of the season and “I still haven’t put weeks on weeks together,” he said.
“But I feel like I’ve grinded really well,” Bichette continued. “And this month, obviously, fought through times of not feeling well better than I did earlier in the year. So just continue to do that.”
Th Blue Jays kept Chris Flexen under constant pressure over his five innings on Tuesday, but they missed a chance for a decisive blow in the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out. They settled for a single run when Biggio’s fly ball to left scored Guerrero.
Ray, who had allowed two hits and a walk through five, gave up singles to J.P. Crawford and Mitch Haniger to open the sixth. After striking out Kyle Seager for the third time, he watched France turn on a down-and-in fastball for a game-tying, three-run shot.
Ray recovered to strikeout the next two batters, giving him 10 in the game, and the Blue Jays responded in the bottom half. With 113 strikeouts, he’s tied with Roger Clemens for the most by a starter in team history through 15 games, showing the type of consistency he hasn’t had since his all-star campaign in 2017 with Arizona.
“The biggest thing is being able to make an adjustment pitch to pitch,” Ray said of what’s allowed him to be so consistent. “I’ve done a better job at that this year. If I misfire, then I’m just right back in the zone. In the past where the walks were happening, it was misfire after misfire and then two or three guys get on base, and then it was like, ‘OK, lock it in.’ Whereas this year it seems like on a pitch-to-pitch basis, I’m able to make that adjustment.”
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Driving that change from years past is “having a little bit more focus, a little bit more self-talk,” he explained. “I don’t get down on myself for making a bad pitch. I just come right back and say execute a quality pitch right here.”
Flexen and Rafael Montero, who gave up the Bichette homer, and Will Vest, who served up Semien’s backbreaker, couldn’t do the same thing.
Semien’s five RBIs pushed his season total to 50, joining Guerrero (66), Bichette (53) and Grichuk (52) at the plateau, the first time in team history four players have reached the mark before July 1. Hernandez, sitting on 47, can make it five with a big day on Wednesday.
“We’ve got guys all up and down our lineup that can produce on a nightly basis so it’s really fun to watch these guys get into the box and take those swings,” Ray said. “Honestly, the way that everybody’s swinging right now, it’s not just the top four or five, six hitters. It’s all the way down through the lineup. Everybody swinging the bat really well right now.”
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