Blue Jays takeaways: Bo Bichette gets the better of his buddy in win over Cleveland

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This article was published 05/08/2021 (1833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 3-0 win over Cleveland at the Rogers Centre on Thursday night:

Growing up in Florida, a year apart in age, Bo Bichette and Triston McKenzie have been friends since they were 10-year-olds. Teammates at the 2018 all-star Futures Game, they worked their way up the minor-league ladder together. Bichette was even in the lineup for New Hampshire when McKenzie made his Double-A debut for the Akron RubberDucks.

Before Tuesday’s game, the pair met up during batting practice for a long conversation, catching up as old friends do, and then Thursday night McKenzie got the start on the hill for Cleveland with Bichette batting cleanup for the Blue Jays.

McKenzie won the first battle, getting Bichette to fly to shallow centre, part of a dominant first trip through the Jays lineup. The tall, skinny righty retired the first nine batters he faced and needed just 31 pitches to do it.

But the next time up, the round went to the hitter and rather emphatically.

With a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. single aboard in the bottom of the fourth — the first hit of the game for either team — Bichette turned around a 2-and-0 slider and belted it to deep left. The young shortstop’s 20th homer of the season landed in the first row of the 200 level and wound up being all the scoring that the Jays would need in picking up their seventh win in eight games.

Bo wasn’t done, though. Just for good measure, he lined a two-out RBI single up the middle off his pal in the sixth inning, driving in all the Jays’ runs for the evening.

There were no extra good feelings for Bichette in beating his buddy, though. While he was very happy to get the win, “I take no glory in hitting home runs off my friends,” said the young Jays slugger after the game.

• Cimber time: With Jordan Romano having thrown nearly 30 pitches in closing out Wednesday night’s nervous ninth, the Jays were looking for a closer Thursday. After a perfect seventh from Trevor Richards and a hitless eighth out of Tim Mayza, manager Charlie Montoyo and pitching coach Pete Walker called upon Adam Cimber.

The sidewinder has been absolutely brilliant since the Jays acquired him in a trade with Miami at the end of June, and he kept on rolling in notching just his second major-league save, retiring the Clevelands in order and closing out yet another stress-free Toronto win.

It was Cimber’s 14th appearance as a Jay. He’s allowed just one run on six hits over 14 1/3 innings, walking only one and striking out 11. Opponents have hit .125 against him. That’s not a typo.

Cimber’s first major-league save came for Cleveland. On Sept. 11, 2019 in Anaheim, he came on with the tying run on first and two out in the bottom of the ninth and struck out Albert Pujols on three pitches.

There’s little doubt that José Berríos will wind up being the most significant in-season acquisition made by the Jays this season, but Cimber could well be right there with him.

• Vlad dodges a bullet: The 14,289 in attendance at the Rogers Centre — along with everyone in the Jays’ dugout and front office — gasped collectively as Guerrero was hit on the left hand by a 93-mile-per-hour cutter from Cleveland reliever Bryan Shaw in the eighth inning.

Guerrero tried to spin out of the way of the pitch, and his momentum took him almost all the way to third base after being hit. Luckily, he wears a protective pad over his batting glove, which took the brunt of the impact, and the young slugger stayed in the game.

Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell popularized that type of padding, though his was built into his batting glove after having his left hand broken when hit by pitches in consecutive seasons.

Guerrero hasn’t been up to his otherworldly standards on this homestand, hitting just .240/.296/.400 over the seven games — six of which have been Jays wins — but slumping or otherwise, he’s someone the team can ill afford to lose for any length of time.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness