Who’s Hot, Who’s Cold: Blue Jays Pitchers

Over the past two weeks the Jays were 5-8. Our pitchers had a 3.76 ERA.

Hot

Kevin Gausman: 1-1, with a 0.66 ERA in 2 starts. In 13.2 innings, batters hit .226/.241/.396 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

He pitched 6.2 and 7.0 innings in the starts, both Quality Starts, and threw 99 and 93 pitches, respectively. He had a couple of poor starts in early April but has been very good since.

Jose Berrios: 1-2, with a 2.00 ERA in 3 starts. He threw 18 innings, batters hit .206/.286/.333 with 2 home runs, 6 walks and 10 strikeouts.

In those three games, he pitched 6, 5, and 7 innings. He threw 91, 67 (rain-shortened), and 92 pitches, which is interesting to me. His team scored 7 runs in those three starts. He’s showing up on the emails I get from betting sites (hoping I’ll write about them) if you want to make a Cy Young bet. The last I saw was 25 to 1.

Jordan Romero: In 5 appearances, he had 3 saves, and a 1.93 ERA. In 4.2 innings batters hit .177/.222/.353 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

His first couple of appearances were kind of shaky, after coming off the IL. Since then he’s been good. Much the same as always.

Yimi Garcia: In 5 games, he had 3 holds and a 0.00 ERA. In 4.2 innings, batters hit .125/.222/.188 with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He’s had an amazing start to the season.

Tim Mayza: In 5 games, he had 2 holds with a 0.00 ERA. In 4.1 innings, batters hit .071/.071/.071 with 1 single, 0 walks and 3 strikeouts.

Another who had a tough start to the season but has been great since. With his track record, we should know not to get worried when he has a couple of bad games.

Cold

Chris Bassitt: 0-3 with a 7.71 ERA in 3 starts. In 14 innings, batters hit .333/.415/.526 with 3 homers, 7 walks and 12 strikeouts.

He went 5.1, 2.2 and 6.0 innings in the starts. He threw 97, 77 and 92 pitches. One of the starts was a Quality Start. He had a rough start against the Dodgers ( think a lot of pitchers are going to have rough starts against the Dodgers.

Nate Pearson: in 6 games, he had 1 save, and a 9.64 ERA. In 4.2 innings, batters hit .368/.440/.526 with 1 home run. 3 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Nate was doing terrific (0 ERA in 6 games) before being sent down to Buffalo. Since then, he hasn’t been as good, He’s had two bad outings. And in a couple of the games where he didn’t give up a run, he was kind of shaky. I’m hoping that turns around quickly. I’d like him to stay on the team.

Erik Swanson: In 5 games he had 3 holds and a 7.71 ERA. In 4.2 innings, batters hit .33/.364/.667 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

He hasn’t been great since coming off the IL. In his 6 appearances this season, he’s given up runs in 4 and he hasn’t pitched a clean inning yet.

Inbetween

Yusei Kikuchi: 1-1, with a 4.50 ERA in 2 starts. In 12 innings, batters hit .292/.286/.479 with 1 home run, 0 walks and 7 strikeouts.

He pitched 6 innings in both starts and 81 and 91 pitches in those two starts. One a Quality Start and one just not quite a Quality start. A couple of years ago we would have never guessed that Yusei would get through two starts without walking a batter.

Genesis Cabrera: In 5 games, he was 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA. In 3.2 innings, batters hit.250/..368/.375 with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts.

Another who had a tough start to the season, but has been so much better lately. He’s putting more runners on base than we’d like but he’s been fine lately.

Trevor Richards: In 5 games, he had 1 hold, and a 3.18 ERA. In 5.2 innings batters hit .191/.292/.476 with 2 home runs, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.

If you ignore the 2 home runs, he’s been great, but that’s tough to ignore.

Also Pitched

Brendon Little: In 2 games he had a 11.57 ERA. In 2.1 innings, batters hit .417/.417/.583 with 0 walks and 2 strikeouts.

I was surprised when the Jays choose to bring him up.

Zach Pop: 1 game, 0.00 ERA. In 1 inning, he faced 3 batters, with 1 strikeout.

Good to see him back with the Jays.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 1 game, a 9.00 ERA. In 1 innings batters hit .333/.400/.333 with 1 walk.

I’m guessing that he’ll have more than just that one inning of pitching this year.

IL

Yariel Rodríguez: In 3 starts, he was 0-1 with a 4.63 ERA. In 11.2 innings batters hit .306/.393/.449 with 1 home run, 6 walks and 10 strikeouts.

In the three starts before going on the IL he pitched 4, 4 and 3.2 innings, throwing 83, 69 and 82 pitches. They weren’t great starts, but maybe the back issue came up earlier than we were told. He’s on the IL with thoracic spine inflammation which seems like a long way of saying a sore back. They think he’ll be back by the middle of the month. The question is, will they bring someone up to fill his spot in the rotation, or will they just work around the off-day the team has in the next couple of weeks?

Bowden Francis: In 2 games, he was 1-0, with a 0.00 ERA. In 4.0 innings, batters hit .200/.250/.200

On the IL with a ‘forearm issue’. No work on his return.

Chad Green: On the IL. He’s a ways from being ready to come back.