Toronto Blue Jays Japanese left-handed fireballer Yusei Kikuchi (33) had to leave the mound after pitching his shortest inning of the season despite a dazzling strikeout show.
Kikuchi started the 2024 Major League Baseball regular-season game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, on Saturday (June 16) and allowed one run on six hits and one walk while striking out nine in 4 1/3 innings. Despite the strong outing, Kikuchi failed to make it out of the fifth inning and fell to 2-3 on the season. Toronto fell to 2-3 on Adley Rutchman’s game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth.
It was a disappointing game for Kikuchi in many ways. He recorded his most strikeouts in a single game this season (nine) and allowed just one earned run, but his outing was overshadowed by the fact that he was removed from the game with the win requirement.
After allowing a leadoff single to Jordan Westberg in the top of the first, Kikuchi found his groove by retiring the next two batters, Lurchman and Ryan Mountcastle. He gave up a walk to Gunner Henderson, but struck out Anthony Santander on three fastballs to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second, Kikuchi faced a leadoff walk to Jorge Mateo and an eight-pitch at-bat to put runners in scoring position. After retiring Colton Kauser on a swinging strikeout, Kikuchi got James McCann to fly out to first base and Cedric Mullins to fly out to center field to end the threat.
In the top of the third, Toronto cut the deficit to 2-1 on an RBI double by Bo Bissett. With support from the bats, Kikuchi struck out Westberg and got Lurchman to fly out to left field in the bottom of the inning. Mountcastle gave up a single up the middle, but Henderson induced a grounder to first base to end the inning.
Kikuchi faced Santander on a full count in the fourth and was hit by a seven-pitch slider for a single. He got Mateo to ground out to short, but Kauser singled to put runners on first and second. To make matters worse, catcher Danny Jansen’s foil put runners on second and third.
In the clutch, Kikuchi’s strikeout ability shone through. After throwing a four-pitch changeup to McCann for a swinging strike, Kikuchi got Mullins to ground out on a 2-2 count with a fastball that skimmed the outside of the plate.
After escaping the jam, Kikuchi retired three straight batters in the bottom of the fifth, including a strikeout of leadoff hitter Westberg. However, he gave up a hit after a full-count battle with Lurchman.
With Kikuchi’s pitch count reaching 88, the Toronto bench was 토토 quick to make a pitching change. With two outs and the winning pitcher requirement, Kikuchi turned the mound over to right-hander Zach Popp to finish the night with Mountcastle batting.
It was the second time this year that Kikuchi failed to complete five innings, following his first start of the season on March 31 against the Tampa Bay Rays (4⅓ innings, three runs). Without a win, Kikuchi had to settle for lowering his ERA from 2.64 to 2.60.
“There’s no point in dwelling on the fact that I didn’t get the win,” Kikuchi said in his post-game interview. I’m not conscious of it,” he said, adding, ‘I wanted to throw a little more, but I had no choice because I had runners on base every inning.’
“Kikuchi pitched very well,” said Toronto manager John Schneider, “and the fifth inning was going to be his last inning because of the pitch count. We made the change to face Mountcastle again,” he said of the fifth inning decision. Kikuchi, who has a slightly worse record against righties (0.189) than lefties (0.250), decided to bring in the right-handed pop against Mountcastle, who is strong against lefties (0.300 against lefties / 0.257 against righties), and who had already singled in the third inning.
Overall, Kikuchi hasn’t had much luck this season. Despite five quality starts, he hasn’t gotten much support from his offense and has only won two games. Since picking up his second win of the season on April 23 against Kansas City (two runs in six innings), he hasn’t won in four games. In particular, he suffered a no-decision despite pitching six innings of one-run ball against the Washington Nationals on April 4 and a loss despite pitching eight innings of two-run ball against the Minnesota Twins on April 11. Kikuchi, who was aiming for a fourth win in three starts, was hampered by his pitch count and will have to wait until another opportunity to pick up his third win of the season.