The Bo Show goes on
Breaking down Monday's game-winning Bo Bichette at-bat. Plus, a scary moment, John Schneider, Pete Walker, shoddy umpiring, Jason Adam, Randy Arozarena, Tuesday's mid-doubleheader podcast, and more!
Full count. Two outs. Bottom of the eighth. Runner on. Down a run. Bo Bichette. Ballgame.
Or, OK, maybe not ballgame. The Blue Jays did have to get three more outs to come out on top in this one, which closer Jordan Romano did with typical aplomb — and massive help from a great Jackie Bradley Jr. catch on a Manuel Margot rocket that actually travelled farther and had a higher expected batting average than Bichette’s home run. With the first out down and Romano’s steady hand on the mound, victory was academic, the deciding moment having unmistakably come in the previous frame — mere moments after what was probably the low point of the game, when the scuffling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. waved helplessly at two far-outside sliders on either side of a cookie of one that he took down the middle for a strike in what was one of the worst at-bats you’ll ever see him take.
Bichette has put this team on his back of late, and may have saved his best for the opener of this week’s five-games-in-four-days series with the Rays. And it was a moment made all the more impressive because of how he fearlessly stepped back into the batter’s box after having been hit by a 97 mph Javy Guerra pitch in his previous at-bat that came as close as the laws of physics will allow to smashing his face into a million pieces.
Twenty games ago Bichette was basically a league average hitter for the season, his numbers dragged down by a putrid April and a couple pedestrian months in June and July. At the time he ranked 12th out of 24 qualified shortstops with a 102 wRC+. After Monday’s game that number stands at 128, trailing only Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner, and Carlos Correa, as for the moment he has slipped ahead of Francisco Lindor. In the month of September alone he has added a half win more to his season WAR total than any other position player in the sport, going from 2.2 Wins Above Replacement at the conclusion of play August 31st, to 3.9 WAR.
Here’s how it happened on Monday night.
The bottom of the sixth…
Before we get to the home run we need to back up to the incident in the sixth inning, because — as I said — it adds a whole other dimension to what Bo would do later on.
With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on second base, having doubled, the locked-in Bichette stepped in against Guerra and almost didn't make it out. With the count 1-1, Guerra whipped a sinker toward the plate at 97 mph that got away from him, hitting Bichette somewhere — seemingly the inside of his right arm — while coming dangerously, frighteningly close to his face.
It’s scary enough at normal speed, but I think you get an even truer sense of how bad it could have been in the GIF below, in which I’ve highlighted the ball in yellow.
Bichette was visibly angry after the pitch, violently slamming his bat to the ground, then flipping it away before taking his base. Part of it, I'm sure, was the fact that the bat had been taken out of his red-hot hands at such a crucial moment with his team down a run and a runner in scoring position. Partly, though, I'm sure it was because of what an incredibly close call he'd had.
“I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” Bo would tell reporters after the game.
Tempers flared, but nothing came of it. Nor did anything, except a silly warning from the umpires, come from the incident in the top of the following inning, when Berríos — who, it must be said, pitched a good game, thanks in part because of some serious help from Matt Chapman — hit Francisco Meija with the second pitch he threw.
Well, nothing except this great clip of John Schneider and Pete Walker, which certainly helps set us up for four more games of this — including two here on Tuesday.
Anyway, Bo was fortunately fine, but the Jays’ potential rally evaporated when Alejandro Kirk grounded the first pitch he saw to second base.
The bottom of the eighth…
The score remained 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, with the Jays’ lone run on the board coming courtesy a fourth inning RBI single from — who else? — Bo Bichette.
Raimel Tapia began the bottom of the eighth with a ringing single up the middle on an 0-1 changeup from the Rays' new pitcher, Jason Adam.
Adam, who pitched for the Blue Jays in 2019, is one of those incredibly annoying Rays success stories. A high strikeout guy as an up-and-comer in the Padres and Royals organizations, walks began to pile up for Adam as he made his way up to more advanced levels. He walked 10 batters in 21 2/3 innings for the Jays when he pitched here. He was even worse with the Cubs in 2020 and 2021, walking 14 in 24 1/3 innings in the big leagues. This year the walks have simply disappeared. Coming into this one he'd issued just 13 unintentional free passes over 57 1/3 innings, while striking out 70, allowing just 24 hits, and pitching to a 1.26 ERA.
He was also the creep chosen to be the spokesperson for the group of Rays players who refused to wear hats with a rainbow logo on it for Pride Night, and pulled off the rainbow patches on their sleeves — something that's not particularly relevant to Monday night's game, but worth keeping in mind as we laugh at his failure.
Like when Tapia immediately stole second base, getting a ridiculous jump on Adam’s first pitch to George Springer and sliding head-first into second base easily ahead of Meija’s throw. (A moment I completely blanked on when I originally published this post in the middle of the night. Sorry, Raimel!)
Adam did have some success here, too, though. With Tapia now on second, he induced a weak groundout back to the mound off the bat of Springer that — thanks to more astute baserunning from Tapia — held runner at second base. Then there was the aforementioned Vladdy at-bat, which was exactly as ugly as the zone plot below makes it look. (Though Vlad did have a legitimate complaint on the third pitch for home plate umpire Brennan Miller, who refused to grant him time despite Vlad calling for it twice.)
Bo was the Jays’ last hope to get something from the frame, but he didn’t make it easy on himself. Nor did Adam. Nor did Miller.
Adam didn’t throw his best slider with the first pitch, location-wise, and clearly Bo was swinging for the fences from the jump. He swung through the pitch, putting himself in an early hole.
Adam went to his fastball with the second pitch, missing badly with one at 96.3 mph, or about one full tick above his season average, and nearly two mph above the 94.6 he averaged during his stint with the Jays. Bo made the right choice in not swinging, but it wasn’t a particularly difficult one.
Bo made the right choice not to offer at the next pitch, too. A much tougher take. Unfortunately, Miller didn’t see it that way, despite the pitch being clearly outside…
…and something of a unicorn compared how balls and strikes had been called all night.
The difference between 2-1 and 1-2 is pretty massive. Bo, in particular, has produced an awful wRC+ of just 12 in at-bats where he's found himself down 1-2 in the count this season. In at-bats where he's seen a 2-1 count his wRC+ is 110. He was in tough now.
And he was in a spot where the Bo of earlier in the season may have gone down swinging. Adam’s slider can make batters look foolish, as Vladdy so ably demonstrated in the previous plate appearance, which is his most-used pitch this year once he gets to two strikes on a batter, and which right-handed hitters have swung at 67.1% of the time in those counts, swinging and missing on 40% of those. (It’s also a weapon that he didn’t have as a member of the Jays in 2019, when he was a fastball-curveball-changeup guy.)
Adam yanked this one, forcing his catcher, Mejia, to make a nice block and keep Tapia at third. 2-2.
Next up, a pitch that you absolutely do not want to throw to the hottest hitter in baseball. Fastball, middle-middle. But Adam got away with it, as Bo could only slash it down the first base line foul.
Back to the slider, and here Bo gets another gift, and Mejia has to do more work.
Not Adam’s best slider, which this year he’s generally done a very good job keeping close enough to the zone to tempt batters to offer. Not here. Ball three. Full count.
Adam had another slider still left in his bag, and as Alejandro Kirk stood in the on-deck circle hoping for a chance to hit, and Bichette’s other Jays teammates looking on apprehensively from the dugout…
…Bo steeled himself to hit it. Or to not be fooled by it.
This was a better pitch, or at least one closer to where Adam wanted to throw it. But with Bo as locked in as he is, and into his slightly less aggressive two-strike approach, he was able to stay back then go down and get it, giving the pitch a real ride.
Rays right fielder Randy Arozarena gave chase, drifting back, and back, until he ran out of room, leaping at the wall, and ultimately coming up empty.
As the realization of what had just happened set it, he gave the look of a man who — in the words of one tweeter — had “seen some shit.” That wouldn’t exactly have been wrong. We all had seen it too.
Adam’s reaction was a bit different, but no less hilarious and utterly, utterly satisfying.
Meanwhile Bo trotted around the bases…
…and headed to the dugout for his date with the club’s home run jacket and a bunch of fired-up teammates…
…and for a rare curtain call after fans stayed on their feet cheering as Adam began to work to the next batter.
“I can't tell you how impressive that home run is after his last at-bat,” explained Buck Martinez in the Sportsnet broadcast booth as this all unfolded. “Let me tell you, folks, you don't see many people who can do what Bo just did after taking 99 around his face. Absolutely amazing to be able to focus and stay in the moment after dodging an inside fastball. One of the best at-bats I've ever seen, given the circumstances.”
That’s some incredibly high praise right there, and from someone who’d know about how rattling a close call like the one Bo had earlier can be.
Dan Shulman took a much-needed breath after his electrifying call, which was one of many worth reliving — which we can do here thanks to Twitter’s @james_in_to, who has compiled calls from Tampa's WGES (in Spanish), Bally Sports Sun, WDAE, plus Dan on Sportsnet and Ben Wagner on the Fan 590.
And, yeah, of course we’re going to watch it.
A season-defining moment? It’s too soon to say, obviously. But it sure had the feel of one that we may remember for a long, long time.
The Blue Jays have now moved ahead of the Rays in the standings, and now sit even with the Seattle Mariners at 79-61 on the year. They are now only 5.5 back of the New York Yankees for the AL East lead. Safe to say it’s been a good stretch.
Lastly…
Just a bit of a programming note here folks, as I’d like to let you all know that Nick and I will be back on Callin on Tuesday, checking in between games of the Jays-Rays doubleheader! We’ll be going live at 5:15 PM ET.
Get yourself the Callin app and follow us on there so you can tune in live, drop us a question in the chat, or give us a call!
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It's always fun to watch a player who is on a roll like this. It's a common reaction to get angry when you're scared. I don't think he was joking when he said he saw his life flash before his eyes.
Why does Berrios love the red uniforms? At least our record with them on is slowly improving.