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Instant Reaction: Bats go quiet again despite Yusei Kikuchi’s gem, as the Jays fell 3-2

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It’s not very often that a starting pitcher goes eight innings, giving up two earned runs and is still tagged with the loss.

But this is the 2024 Blue Jays we’re talking about, of course that happened to Yusei Kikuchi as the Blue Jays lost 3-2 to the Minnesota Twins, bringing their record to 17-21.

After two seeing-eye-singles, José Miranda also found a seeing-eye single which gave the Twins a 1-0 lead. This was really the only blemish on Kikuchi’s record from this game.

The Blue Jays had a dismal off-season, but one good pickup was Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the third to tie the game. He had a great game, but more on that later.

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Carlos Santana hit a lead off home run in the top of the fifth, Kikuchi’s last earned run, and actually his last hit allowed too. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays’ bat decided to not work, again, and this home run + an insurance run meant he took the loss.

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With that being said, that doesn’t mean that the Blue Jays didn’t show a little bit of fight in the bottom of the ninth. Down to their last out, Bo Bichette singled, Cavan Biggio walked, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had another hit to make it 3-2.  Ernie Clement had solid contact, but it bounced off the pitcher and the Twins were able to get the out.

Things worth mentioning…

Yusei Kikuchi finished with a line of 8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K with the home run given up. Very seldom does a pitcher go eight innings, yet gets tagged with the loss. However, the Blue Jays (who are led by Don Mattingly as the “offensive coordinator”), just don’t hit.

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An example of that is in the bottom of the fifth, as Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ernie Clement started the inning off with two singles, leading to runners on second and third. The next three batters saw Davis Schneider strikeout, with lineouts from Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Toronto’s offence came from three players, Isiah Kiner-Falefa who had three hits in four at-bats, while Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. both had multi-hit games. Ernie Clement had the other hit.

The Blue Jays bullpen isn’t in a great spot right now. Nate Pearson came in and gave up a double while striking out a batter and getting two hits. Génesis Cabrera allowed a hit to score the game-winning run, both these pitchers have an ERA above 5.50 right now. Not great.

Up next: The Blue Jays return to action on Saturday at 3:07 PM ET, with Kevin Gausman facing off against Simeon Woods Richardson. The latter was involved in the José Berríos trade at the 2021 trade deadline. This season, Woods Richardson has a 1.74 ERA and a 1.86 FIP in 20.2 innings pitched.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.