The Toronto Blue Jays take their pursuit of the .500 mark on the road as they open a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.
The Blue Jays packed a two-game winning streak when they embarked on a trip that will also see them visit the Milwaukee Brewers for three games to start of next week. At 30-32, they’d need to sweep the A’s to leave the city above .500.
That’s a mark the Blue Jays haven’t seen since April 29, when they were 15-15. On that occasion, they lost their next three games and 10 of 14 to fall to a season-worst 19-25, before turning things around of late with an 11-7 run. They defeated the Baltimore Orioles the past two days, splitting their four-game series.
“We’re not in a position where we want to be, but we’ve been grinding,” said Yusei Kikuchi, Thursday’s winning pitcher. “We haven’t given up. We’ve got 100 games left. That’s still a lot of season, so hopefully we can ride this momentum and keep winning.”
Toronto hopes right-hander Chris Bassitt (6-6, 4.13 ERA) is the right man in the right spot to keep the club rolling.
The 35-year-old pitched six seasons for the A’s, highlighted by a 12-4 campaign in 2021 in which he was selected to the American League All-Star team. He hasn’t lost to his old club since being dealt to the New York Mets in March 2022.
Bassitt got plenty of support from his Mets teammates in a 9-2 win in his first return to Oakland on Sept. 23, 2022. He threw eight innings that day, allowing six hits.
He had a similar experience last September, only it was the Toronto offense that made things easier for him. He again went eight innings, allowing seven hits in a 7-1 win.
In his career, he’s 2-0 with a 2.67 ERA in four starts against the A’s.
Bassitt brings a three-game winning streak into the start, having allowed a total of three runs in his last 17 innings. He is the only MLB pitacher to have gotten a decision in all 12 or more of his starts this season.
Among the unfamiliar faces he will see in his old stomping grounds will be A’s left-hander Hogan Harris (0-0, 3.14), who was promoted by Oakland for the first time the season after Bassitt was traded.
Harris has faced Toronto just once in his career, that coming as a bulk-innings reliever in Toronto last June. He was roughed up for four runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings that day in a 7-3 loss. He did not get a decision.
The 27-year-old pitched effectively in his first start of this season on May 30, limiting the Tampa Bay Rays to one earned run and four hits over 5 2/3 innings in a 6-5, 12-inning road loss.
That game came in a stretch in which A’s starters have allowed two or fewer earned runs in six of nine outings. Oakland is just 3-6 over that span, however.
“It’s been a good run; we have definitely pitched. Offensively we haven’t taken advantage of that,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after Thursday’s 3-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners. “Generally, you get good pitching, you win games. We’ve had good starting pitching the last 10 or 12 outings. We haven’t capitalized on it.”