BRADENTON, Fla. — As tenuous as it might be given his at\u002Dtimes calamitous performances of 2022, for now the Blue Jays fifth starter belongs to Yusei Kikuchi.
No bookmaker is re-setting their American League Cy Young Award odds based on the effort of course, but for a pitcher who fought his confidence so much last season, it was an encouraging outing.
There was plenty to like about Kikuchi’s appearance, starting with the fact that he cruised through two scoreless innings. Thriving on the rhythm mandated by the pitch clock, it also appeared that he had added muscle over the winter. Prior to the game, Jays manager John Schneider encouraged his lefty to “fill the zone” recognizing the inability to do that last season — often early in games — was one of his major downfalls.He seemed to love the prospect of using the 15-second pitch clock to his advantage. Often fidgety when things went awry last season, overthinking seemed to exacerbate his problems.Article content
“The more rhythm you can get into, especially with a guy like him is going to be key,” Schneider said. “Just about the pitch before, whether it’s good or bad, and moving on to the next one. It just moves you on to the the next pitch very quickly.” Time of game, for starters, was a swift two hours and 47 minutes. There was a flow to at-bats and dramatically less wasted time.
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