ST. PETERSBURG -- There’s such a wonderful stubbornness to the way Chris Bassitt pitches.

At his best, it’s what allows Bassitt to trudge forward, the old-school, rubber-armed righty who called throwing 200 innings last season "my only goal forever." On the days it doesn’t go Bassitt’s way, like Friday’s 8-2 loss to the Rays, it’s why no one in the organization blinks. They know who Bassitt is and who he will be.

“I’m never concerned about Chris,” said George Springer, who homered again. “It’s not the result you know he would have wanted, but at the end of the day, he knows how to navigate a year. He had a very similar start last year and ended up pitching 200 innings and was arguably one of our best guys and one of the best in the league. It’s all right. It’s all good. He’s going to be Chris Bassitt a lot more often than not.”

It was all going so well for Bassitt, who struck out five of the first seven batters he faced and was baffling hitters with his unpredictable pitch mix as deep as anyone’s in baseball. Then, everything turned on a Brandon Lowe grand slam, a blow that would have been softer had Bo Bichette fielded a potential double-play ball cleanly one batter earlier.

Regardless of how well or how poorly it was going, though, you’d have a hard time telling. Bassitt is his own man on the mound, sometimes straight-faced, other times looking like he’s just been told his flight will be delayed three more hours. This is all part of Bassitt’s game. He’s planning, plotting, pacing his breath.

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“I felt really good tonight. I threw my pitches basically where I wanted them, it was just one pitch,” Bassitt said. “Obviously, he’s an unbelievable hitter and had 20-plus homers last year. I just can’t make that mistake. That was literally the game. It was just one pitch. It’s unfortunate. It is what it is. Learn from it. Move on.”

Bassitt may have pitched better than his line suggests, and while his track record alone should be all you need to trust that a bounce-back start is coming, his 2023 season offers up another case. In Bassitt’s first start with the Blue Jays, the Cardinals absolutely rocked him. He allowed nine runs over 3 1/3 innings that day, including four home runs. It was like the Cardinals’ lineup knew exactly which one of Bassitt’s 100 pitches he was about to throw.

Six months later, Bassitt walked off the mound with a 3.60 ERA over an even 200 innings, the fifth-highest workload in baseball. He doesn’t overwhelm hitters with stuff alone, but he grinds away and finds his edges.

“He’s one of the very few guys, and this is unique, who is thinking along with what a hitting coach is probably telling their hitters,” manager John Schneider said. “He’s trying to do the opposite. He’s trying to do it in-game, too. There are times where he’s just going to throw all sinkers, or if you’re not expecting a splitter right-on-right, [he's] going to throw one. It varies.”

Bassitt has been around. He’s 35 now, a veteran in every sense, but a good pitcher never stands still.

“This is going to sound weird, because he throws 13 pitches, but I think he understands his game a little bit better now,” Schneider said, “and won’t deviate too much unless he has to. His MO before has been to throw everything at you, and it may not be the best time to do that. I think that’s where he’s landed. He’s pretty much in total control of what he’s trying to do and not getting too cute.”

At this time last year, just before that ugly outing in St. Louis, Schneider says the Blue Jays were still feeling Bassitt out. He’s a unique pitcher to begin with, and when any veteran arm joins a new organization, there’s a settling-in period. Now, everything feels simpler. He can get right to the point.

“I don’t need to discuss who I am or what I do,” Bassitt said, “or what I need from the trainers and the strength staff. They know me already. Here’s my Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and so on. It’s about understanding what I need every single day, so we don’t have to have that talk any more, and that’s nice.”

That’s Bassitt, a complicated pitcher who’s at his best when everything looks simple. Soon enough -- like last year -- this first outing will be an outlier again.