The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a sweep of the Chicago White Sox this week and front and centre was the strong work of their starting pitchers.
Chris Bassitt was quality in the opener against Chicago on Monday and Yusei Kikuchi tossed another strong outing in the sweep on Wednesday, but the gem from José Berríos between those two is what stands out the most.
José Berríos, 95mph Sinker and 86mph Slurve, Overlay pic.twitter.com/xbOWTYxRFu
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 26, 2023
Berríos had a rough time with Peurto Rico in the World Baseball Classic and those struggles bled into the start of the Blue Jays’ regular season. The right-hander led off the season in early April with an 11.17 ERA after giving up 12 earned runs on 15 hits in just his first two games against the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Angels. This was fairly alarming in Blue Jay world as assumptions of where Berríos would fit in as a pitcher began to churn.
Fast forward to April 25, Berríos took the mound at the Rogers Center in front of 28,917 fans to battle the White Sox. Needless to say, Berríos was spectacular in his outing, going seven strong innings, only allowing four hits, one walk, and striking out nine White Sox hitters for a 7-0 Blue Jays victory.
What did we see from Jose Berríos? There were a ton of positive differences from his performance beyond the numbers in his pitching line.
Let’s start with comfort and composure! Berríos was dialled in and relaxed in each of his matchups. His delivery and finish were fluent and calculated without hesitatio …
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Author: Nick Prasad / Blue Jays Nation
