If Yusei Kikuchi's last spring outing raised any concerns for the left-hander, he put them to bed with his five-inning performance in the Toronto Blue Jays' 3-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.
After starting the spring with 11.2 scoreless innings, Kikuchi walked three and allowed two runs over 3.1 last Friday in a loss against the Philadelphia Phillies.
But his bounce-back outing in Fort Myers, Fla. may have been the best the 31-year-old has looked in 2023.
Kikuchi allowed only five baserunners (three hits, one walk and one hit batter) while striking out nine. He also worked his pitch count up to a spring-high 87 — 57 of them landing for strikes — and didn't give up a run in a 3-0 win.
Three of his strikeouts came against Twins stars Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton, with Kikuchi punching out the latter with a fastball to end the fifth inning.
He got 17 whiffs on the afternoon, building on the encouraging results he'd gotten through his first five outings.
The lefty lowered his spring earned-run average from 1.38 to 1.00. He is 2-1 with 25 strikeouts over 18 innings in six pre-season starts.
Kikuchi came into the season on the heels of a mediocre debut season with the Jays with a 6-7 record and 5.19 ERA.
He has made a strong case to join ace Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and newcomer Chris Bassitt in an impressive rotation.
Four Jays relievers combined to allow just one hit and one walk over the game's final four innings. Nate Pearson picked up the save.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on RBI singles from Spencer Horwitz and Orelvis Martinez.
Horwitz capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Minnesota starter Tyler Mahle allowed all three Jays runs in picking up the loss.
Toronto (16-11) faces Philadelphia on Friday at Dunedin, Fla.
With files from Sportsnet.
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