2 HRs, walk-off: Bichette 'starting to heat up'

April 14th, 2021

Opportunity knocked over and over for the Blue Jays in Wednesday’s finale against the Yankees, and answered.

Bichette’s second home run of the game walked it off for the Blue Jays in their 5-4 win at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. Prior to launching his two blasts, Bichette’s single in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 11 games, tying a career high.

Opening Day in New York is the only game Bichette has been held hitless in this season, but he was just scratching the surface early on, trying to find his footing both in the field and at the plate. Wednesday’s win was the complete package: attacking pitchers, stealing a base, making plays at shortstop and hitting for power.

“I’m just starting to heat up,” Bichette said. “I was grinding for a while and staying alive. I think that’s part of baseball. You fight until you start feeling good. I feel good. I know I have all the time in the world. I’m not worried about fastballs getting by me, so that’s a good feeling to have.”

It’s unique for any player to feel like they have “all the time in the world” on a baseball field. Everything comes at you fast, whether you’re in the box or standing at short, and every move that Bichette makes on the field is with an all-out intensity. Still, he credits his recent success to recognizing that, even within the chaos, he still has time to breathe.

“Sometimes when you’re in the box, you feel like you’ve got to swing right when the guy lets go of the ball,” Bichette said. “For me, it’s just about reminding myself how much time we have. We always have more time than we think.”

When Bichette is at his best, manager Charlie Montoyo sees a hitter who’s capable of driving the ball to all fields with power. Montoyo calls Bichette one of the best two-strike hitters in baseball, and his lightning-quick bat is a major part of that. Bichette can afford to look for tose sliders down and away or offspeed pitches, because if he’s challenged with that high fastball, his hands are still fast enough to put bat to ball.

“That’s why the sky is the limit with this kid,” Montoyo said.

Before Bichette’s big moment in the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Jays were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and looked like they had allowed the Yankees to stick around for too long. But Bichette’s one-man performance was enough in the end. Now hitting .327 on the season with a 1.012 OPS, the 23-year-old is off to an exceptional start at the plate, showing the aggression that makes him special.

got in on the action, too, launching his first home run of the season after opening the year 0-for-13.

When Kirk came up in the Majors late last year, he hit everything. And that advanced bat carried over into Spring Training when he won a job coming out of camp. Kirk will hit for contact more than he hits for raw power, but the young catcher would have taken anything after his slow start.

It’s crucial that the Blue Jays start to get some production from that position as a whole, too. Danny Jansen is just 2-for-22 (.091) to open the season, and while Toronto knows that both he and Kirk are capable of more, there are plenty of opportunities ahead for whichever backstop gets hot.

“It feels great. I’ve been feeling very good the last couple of days, but when I hit that homer, it was a huge relief for me,” Kirk said through a team translator. “It just felt great.”

The Blue Jays sent T.J. Zeuch to the mound after Ross Stripling was a late scratch with right forearm tightness, and the bullpen effort behind Zeuch held off the Yankees’ big bats. Trent Thornton, Anthony Castro and Rafael Dolis combined to throw five shutout innings to keep Toronto involved just long enough to pull out the walk-off win.