Blue Jays bounce back for series win as Bassitt shuts down Nationals

TORONTO – This is what you’re supposed to do to teams during the so-called “soft” portion of your schedule.

The Toronto Blue Jays took care of business on Wednesday, outclassing the Washington Nationals in a 7-0 win in front of 39,303 at Rogers Centre. With that, the Blue Jays took two of three from the Nats and finished their six-game homestand against Washington and Cleveland with a 3-3 record.

It’s been talked about ad nauseum: The Blue Jays’ schedule contained five straight series in late August and early September against opponents with records under .500. Well, two of those series are over, but there’s still time for the club to build momentum.

The Blue Jays have alternated wins and losses over their past six contests and it goes without saying that they need to string together some W’s. The club entered Wednesday's play 3.5 games back of a wild-card spot.

“You want to win the series, but we're at the point now with the runway being a little bit shorter where winning the series is the absolute minimum that we have to do,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “There's going to be times where you [have to] sweep a team. Hopefully it's consecutive series in a row and you get a nice little roll.”

The formula on Wednesday worked well — right-hander Chris Bassitt twirled an absolute gem while the offence put up bunches of runs early and often to remove the tension that existed in Tuesday night’s dispiriting loss.

Bassitt continued his dominance at Rogers Centre with eight shutout innings. It was the eighth time this season that the right-hander tossed at least six scoreless frames, which leads the majors and is tied with Dave Stieb for second most in a single season in franchise history (Roger Clemens accomplished the feat nine times in 1997).

The Nationals only reached second base two times against Bassitt. In total, he allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out three over his 110 pitches. Bassitt lowered his season ERA to 3.81 and his 165.1 innings rank sixth in MLB.

“Everyone has a niche of what their job is and what they're good at,” Bassitt said. “And I would say I'm not going to strike a lot of guys out. [Kevin Gausman] just passed 200 strikeouts and I'm like, ‘Man, I'll never do that my career.’ I'm not a strikeout guy, although I can strike some guys out. I pride myself on every five days, I'm going to be out there and hopefully eat enough innings to rest the bullpen and the main goal is to get to 200 innings.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays got on the board in the first inning when Davis Schneider walked and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a single off Nationals starter Patrick Corbin. Alejandro Kirk drove in both runners with a double off the left-centre field wall to put the club up 2-0. Kirk doubled again in the fourth and scored on Santiago Espinal’s liner to the opposite field. The Blue Jays catcher was once again in the middle of the scoring in the sixth, leading off the frame with a single and later scoring on Ernie Clement’s base hit up the middle.

Kirk added a sacrifice fly and went 3-for-3 on the day with three RBIs. He’s now recorded doubles in three straight games. With Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman on the injured list, the Blue Jays are going to need more offensive contributions from other players. Kirk can be one such source, said his manager.

“Kirky’s shown over his career that he's a really good hitter,” said Schneider. “So, if he can get rolling, that's huge, especially right now with the other two guys out.”

The catcher struggled over the first half of the season, posting a .621 OPS. However, since the all-star break, his OPS has risen more than 150 points to .772.

“I feel better at the plate,” Kirk said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “Early in the season I was chasing a lot, therefore I was hitting a lot of ground balls, which is one of my, I don't want to say, maybe weaknesses. But you keep working every day. It's in the past. I feel good right now. So, hopefully I can continue to get better to help the team get some wins.”

Up next for the Blue Jays is a six-game road trip that begins on Friday with three games in Colorado followed by a series against the Oakland Athletics, owners of the worst record in baseball.

The Blue Jays have been waiting all season for the team to reach the next level. There have been numerous false starts but according to Bassitt, some around the league are also expecting things to eventually change.

“Talking with other guys on other teams, I think even the league's kind of waiting for it to happen,” said Bassitt. “Hopefully it does. If we put it all together, I don't see another team better in the big leagues. I really don't. It's just a matter of if we can put it together at the right time.”

Bassitt was asked what gives him confidence the Blue Jays are capable of that.

“We have the guys to do it,” he responded. “There's a lot of false hope in the league when it comes to like, ‘All right, we can put it together at the right time,’ but you don't have the guys who can put it together at the right time. We have the guys to put it together at the right time. Just a matter of getting it done.”