Kikuchi leads Blue Jays over Phillies in battle of interleague equivalents

TORONTO — Ever seen that Spider-Man pointing meme? Surely you’ve come across the still taken from the 1960’s animated series online at some point, perhaps in the context of two things being eerily similar or reflective of one another. Well, there the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies were Tuesday night and man the image sure seems applicable. 

Contextually, they’re a match, two teams with seemingly boffo lineups underperforming at the plate, relying instead on better-than-expected pitching, each in possession of a wild-card berth although they probably expected more of themselves, their records a single win apart. And check out these numbers as they headed into the opener of a two-game set at Rogers Centre: the Blue Jays had one more homer, 138-137; the Phillies held slight edges in runs, 550-540; OPS, .746-.742 and hitting with runners in scoring position, .253-.247.

If they’re not seeing one another in the mirror, they’re at least looking at their interleague equivalent.

Fitting, then, that runs were at a premium as Yusei Kikuchi and Zack Wheeler duelled to a stalemate and that the margin of difference came home when Cavan Biggio was hit by a Seranthony Dominguez pitch in the eighth inning of a 2-1 Blue Jays victory. 

“He's got the biggest toe in the league,” quipped Whit Merrifield, who trotted in with the winning run. “Magnet.”

The unusual ending came after both starters shoved in this one, as Kikuchi allowed only one run over six innings of dominance, touched up for only a Johan Rojas run-scoring double in his final inning of work, while Wheeler surrendered only a George Springer RBI single in the bottom half of the sixth during his seven frames.

The only threat of a big inning came during that decisive eighth, when Dominguez replaced Wheeler and went Nathan Lukes walk, Merrifield single on a sinking liner that Kyle Schwarber gloved but couldn’t hold on to, Brandon Belt strikeout, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walk, George Springer fielder’s choice, on a tremendous play by Alec Bohm throwing home and Biggio hit by pitch. 

Alejandro Kirk couldn’t add on from there, grounding out to end the frame, but Jordan Romano, fresh off the injured list, made a dominant return, retiring Bohm, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, the latter two both swinging, to end it before a crowd of 42,615.

“No matter what it looks like or how you get it done, as long as you get it done that's the only thing that matters,” said Biggio, batting fifth with Matt Chapman still dealing with right middle finger inflammation. “I couldn't be happier to wear a pitch right there, especially to get a run in a pitchers' duel with a good pitcher on the mound. 

“I've got a little bruise right there. It's worth it.”

Indeed, and it’s notable for the Blue Jays – now 67-54 to remain two games up on the Seattle Mariners (64-55), 10-8 winners in 10 innings at Kansas City, for the third wild card – that two players who’ve made important in-season adjustments drove the victory. 

Kikuchi started the season well but hit a blip in May, when his slider morphed into a cutter and he had to readjust the way he was throwing the pitch. It wasn’t until a June 4 outing at the Mets, when he struck out eight over five innings of two-run ball, that he corrected.

Manager John Schneider pointed to that start as when Kikuchi began “buying into the two breaking balls and from there seeing early results and success and then taking it and running with it.”

Over his last 13 starts beginning with that Mets gem, he certainly has, pitching to a 2.63 ERA in 72 innings, with only 16 walks and 80 strikeouts. 

“To watch him compete every time out there, you feel really good with him on the mound,” added Schneider. “He's got great stuff, he's got a great arm, great fastball. And I think just understanding how each one of his pitches play off one another right now has been a real turning point for him.”

Kikuchi keeps getting stronger, too, as in his last six starts, he’s allowed one run five times and none in the other, earning more and more trust along the way.

“I always thought I had the stuff to succeed in the major leagues, but I always in the past had a little bit of a control issue,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “Right now I've been able to attack the zone and get hitters out that way this year. …

“The Mets series is when I started pitching well, but from that game, I started using that curveball. That's able to keep hitters off balance.”

Biggio, meanwhile, started seeing results from some adjustments to his swing during a late May series at Tampa Bay, including an important pinch-hit homer May 24 that helped reinforce that he’s on the right track. 

He’d initially resisted a suggestion from Victor Martinez, the former star slugger who joined the team during the spring as a special advisor, that he throw his hands more directly to the ball, eliminating some of the loop he’s always had, but slowly he’s built comfort and seen results.

He’s batting .271/.377/.466 over his last 49 games with six homers, five doubles and 19 RBIs.

“I've pretty much taken my whole lower body out of it and just try to think, keep my head still, see the ball,” said Biggio. “What makes my hands go is taking my hands straight to the ball. I was missing pitches because I felt like I was pulling off the ball. I don't think I was trying to do too much, but I was pulling off, missing balls or fouling pitches off that I shouldn't have fouled off. I really just wanted to get more consistent contact.”

By stepping right to the pitcher and letting his hands work, “it's taken a lot of process out of (the swing) and made me more on time for fastballs. I'm hitting velocity more consistently.”

That’s also flattened out his bat path, which “is definitely the best it's ever been,” added Biggio. “It's as flat as it's been. … As a result I'm finishing a little bit lower. Historically, I've always finished high by my right ear, now I'm finishing more by my shoulder, which allows me to keep the bat in the zone longer. It's helped me a lot to cover pitches up and down.”

Not to mention sliders coming for his foot, which he paired with a couple of walks off Wheeler and a ninth-inning shift from second to third to cap a productive day. 

Before the game, “we were saying Wheeler was going to back-foot slider him and hit him in the toe,” said Merrifield. “It was the wrong pitcher, but I stepped on home plate and said, 'Told you, you were getting hit.'”

Against an opponent as closely matched to the Blue Jays as the Phillies, it was enough to provide the difference.