Kikuchi can't overcome first-inning meltdown, kicking off a slow Blue Jays defeat

KANSAS CITY, MO. — Yusei Kikuchi has messed around early and gotten away with it before. He entered Wednesday’s matinee with the Kansas City Royals averaging 24.3 pitches thrown in the first innings of his 10 starts this season. He’d retired the side in order in the first only once. More than a third of his walks had come in the first and more than a quarter of his home runs. He’d allowed a .987 OPS against in the first inning and a .706 OPS or less in each of the second through fifth.

For one reason or another, he’s been sluggish out of the gate. Or hitters have seen him well early. Sometimes both. But, since finding a groove with the many adjustments the Toronto Blue Jays are asking him to make at the beginning of May, he’s reliably overcome that initial shakiness to get deeper into his starts than anyone would’ve predicted given how they began.

Like his last time out, when he served up a two-run shot in the first and a solo homer in the second before pitching into the fifth. Or the time before that when he needed 17 pitches to dance around a couple first-inning baserunners ahead of allowing only two runs over five. Or the one prior when Kikuchi threw 37 pitches to eight first-inning batters, walking three, hitting one, and coughing up a pair of runs before settling in and pitching into the fifth.

Thing is, that’s no way to live. It’s bound to catch up to you eventually. And Wednesday it did, as Kikuchi walked four and recorded only two outs in a painful, 45-pitch first-inning meltdown that kicked off a slow, 8-4, Blue Jays death at the hands of the Royals.

“I think, as a starting pitcher, it's our job to be able to make our adjustments,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Kevin Ando. “In the first inning, obviously, I threw a lot of balls, wasn't in the zone that often. But typically, I'm able to bounce back and make my adjustments in the game. And keep our team in the ball game. But today, unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that. I feel really bad that I let my teammates down today.”

It all started so well, as Kikuchi went right after Kansas City leadoff hitter Whit Merrifield and struck him out with a slider. But then he walked Andrew Benintendi on four pitches and Bobby Witt Jr. on six, losing the zone entirely. His next pitch to MJ Melendez was in the dirt, and although he found the plate briefly following that, Kikuchi still served up a flared, run-scoring double into shallow left field that came off the catcher’s bat at only 66.3-mph.

Live in the zone early and bad batted-ball luck like that isn’t so damaging. But live with constant traffic on the basepaths and you’re bound to get baseball’ed. That point was reinforced a batter later — after Kikuchi walked Carlos Santana on seven pitches — when Emmanuel Rivera chopped a slow roller through a hole in Toronto’s infield defence to plate two more.

As Kikuchi walked his next batter on six pitches — each of them seemingly more arduous than the last from a guy averaging over 25 seconds between pitches with runners on this season — Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was already on the top step of the dugout, ready to come get his starter.

“He was just not good today. That's all I can say. That's it,” Montoyo said. “I don't know what the reason is. I know last time he found a way to regroup and he gave us four innings after he threw a lot of pitches. He just couldn't do it today.”

It was the shortest outing of Kikuchi’s 81-start MLB career and an unfortunate step backwards after he’d spent the last month realizing the potential the Blue Jays see in his heavy left arm. Kikuchi was spectacular in May, pitching to a 2.36 ERA and 2.65 FIP over 26.2 innings. His 28.7 per cent strikeout rate was the 11th highest among 69 qualified MLB starters; his .177 batting average against was fifth.

But his first-inning issues persisted throughout. And now it’s up to Kikuchi and the Blue Jays to determine why he’s so inconsistent early and devise a strategy to prevent it going forward. It could be something in his pre-game routine. Could be the mindset he’s carrying to the mound. Could — it ought to be noted — merely be coincidental, a weird trend that will even out over the course of the season. Whatever it is, it needs to be corrected. Because a club’s bullpen can only withstand so many days like Wednesday when it’s asked to record 22 outs.

“My pre-game routine, I feel like, is pretty solid. The pre-game bullpen today was pretty good as well. I think it's more of just having that aggressive mentality, being able to have that mentality out on the mound from pitch number one,” Kikuchi said. “I'm trying to work with my pitching coach, the staff here. Trying new things, trying to get in a good rhythm from pitch number one. I'm definitely aware of that. It is one of my goals to be able to come out strong from pitch number one to start the ball game.

“I have a few checkpoints within my delivery, within my pitching. And, unfortunately, I just wasn't able to grasp that feel for my pitches. I wasn't able to get in a nice rhythm. Today was just real difficult.”

The good news was Montoyo had everyone available save for David Phelps, who’d logged heavy pitch counts two of the last three days. And that Thursday’s an off-day, providing some natural buffer following a long Missouri afternoon.

But on Friday the Blue Jays begin a run of games on 13 consecutive days, kicking off a stretch in which they’re scheduled to play 31 times in 31 days leading into the all-star break, which includes a doubleheader on July 2. Bullpen-carried games like Wednesday’s need to be few and far between.

Of course, an early three-run deficit like the one Kikuchi fronted the Royals is a tiny hill for the Blue Jays' offence to overcome the way it’s been producing lately. And thanks to solo shots from Raimel Tapia and Zack Collins, plus a run-scoring groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., they’d already overcome it by the third inning.

But Trevor Richards coughed up a pair in a hard-luck fourth and another in a hard-hit fifth, as the Royals re-established their three-run lead. Richards wasn’t helped by Tapia booting a ball in right during the fourth, which let a runner advance to third with less than two out. But he also didn’t help himself by leaving a first-pitch heater up to Salvador Perez a pitch later, as well as pitches up to Santana and Michael A. Taylor in the fifth that were likewise punished.

Similar refrain for Adam Cimber, who was saddled with the indignity of allowing Perez’s first triple in a half-decade when Tapia misplayed a fly ball in the right field corner during the sixth, before allowing a well-struck double to Santana that plated the run.

It was that kind of day for the Blue Jays. Julian Merryweather allowed another in the seventh, as he plunked Taylor in a two-strike count, watched him take second on a sacrifice bunt, and let him cross when Merrifield flung a first-pitch double to right-centre off a slider that hung up over the plate.

And the misfortune continued in the eighth when Andrew Vasquez, Toronto’s sixth reliever of the day, sprained his right ankle covering first base on a Melendez swinging bunt and left the game. That forced Montoyo to bring leverage reliever Yimi Garcia into a mop-up spot to pitch on back-to-back days.

Baseball being baseball, Garcia was greeted by a 10-pitch battle with Carlos Santana, which he ought to have won if not for Tapia whiffing on another ball in right, this time losing a lazy fly ball in the sun as the Royals first baseman rumbled into second with a double. Inning extended. Garcia up to 14 pitches on a day he never should’ve taken the mound. A lonely left-field bullpen where only Phelps, who was unavailable, and Jordan Romano, the club’s closer, remained in the ninth.

It would’ve been interesting to see how Montoyo played it had the Blue Jays tied the game. Or forced extra innings. Or gone into the 11th, the 12th. Which all ties back to Kikuchi. The left-hander’s potential is obvious, and he spent the month of May frequently flashing what he could be. But he’s also spent the entire season getting off to slow starts. Losing the zone in the first, walking hitters, constantly dealing with traffic. That’ll have to be addressed. Because you’re bound to run into days like these living on that edge.

“I'm aware that this year that first inning to start the ballgame has been rough at times,” Kikuchi said. “As a starting pitcher, it's my job to go into the fifth, sixth, seventh inning for the team. So, I look forward to hopefully making the proper adjustments and we'll go from there.”