Blue Jays flirt with no-hitter in win over Orioles

SARASOTA, Fla.—The Blue Jays flirted with Grapefruit League “history” on Wednesday, taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning in their 2-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Seven Jays pitchers combined to get the team to within two outs of what’s believed would have been the team’s first spring training no-hitter.

Yusei Kikuchi threw the first two innings, Zach Thompson the next two, and Trent Thornton, Julian Fernández, Matt Peacock, Adrián Hernández and Hayden Juenger took it an inning each the rest of the way.

A second-inning four-pitch walk to Ramón Urias by Kikuchi gave Baltimore its only base runner over the first eight frames.

The closest the O’s came to a hit before Lewin Díaz’s clean single to right field off Juenger with one out in the ninth was when Cavan Biggio knocked down a rocket off the bat of Urias with two out in the fourth.

The second baseman dove to his right, scrambled to find the ball and threw over to first in time to get the hustling runner.

“A shot up the middle,” said Thompson, “and I was like ‘oh no, there’s a base hit’ and nope, Cavan’s right there making the play.”

Despite the fact it was a meaningless pre-season game, the Jays were all in.

“Oh yeah,” said manager John Schneider after the game. “Oh man, it was like the regular season, we weren’t saying anything. It was who can not pass out from the heat and who can not say anything about a no-hitter. It would have been pretty cool.”

The Blue Jays were on the wrong side of a spring training no-no at the turn of the century. On March 14, 2000, Pedro Martinez fired three perfect innings for the Boston Red Sox down in Fort Myers and five relievers followed, retiring the next 18 hitters for a spring perfecto.

Score another for Kooch

Kikuchi followed up Saturday’s strong spring debut with another terrific outing.

The left-hander, on the comeback path from an ugly 2022, threw just 30 pitches over his two hitless innings of work — three fewer than he threw on Saturday — but 20 of them were strikes. His one walk came with a pair of strikeouts. He generated five swings-and-misses, a very good number over 30 pitches, but not close to the 14 he got in his first outing.

Generally, pitchers will advance their pitch counts by 10 or 15 each outing of spring training until backing off for their final sortie, but Kikuchi was pitching on just three days’ rest. He’ll be on a more regular schedule the rest of the month.

Kikuchi, who had serious problems in the first inning last year, posting a 6.86 ERA in the frame, got off to a sensational start, throwing his first seven pitches for strikes before falling behind 2-0 to the Orioles’ No. 3 hitter, Jays killer Ryan Mountcastle. He rebounded to even the count, then got him to ground out weakly to second base.

“Last season, I was maybe overthinking too much about my mechanics and arm action,” said the 31-year-old after his outing (through interpreter Kaito Ebino). “That’s just not happening this year. Everything is clear and I’m just more comfortable on the mound.

So far, so good. The 2021 all-star has given up one hit in four innings over his two appearances this spring, with seven strikeouts.

What a bounceback

Thompson, acquired in a January trade with Pittsburgh, erased an ugly first impression with two perfect innings Wednesday.

He followed Kikuchi to the mound in Saturday’s 9-7 win over the Pirates, walked the first two batters he faced, then gave up a single to load the bases. The next batter, Rodolfo Castro, hit a grand slam.

The six-foot-seven righty’s second outing, also following Kikuchi, was night and day from the first. Thompson struck out the side in order in the third and came back out for the fourth for another perfect frame.

“I think the first outing I was very adrenaline-pumped,” said the 29-year-old. “I guess, you know, former team, first game of spring, pitch clock, all this stuff. Coming here, the focus was just throw strikes. If I give up contact, I do, but I can’t keep walking guys.”

He didn’t on Wednesday, throwing his hat back in the ring to be the 13th pitcher on the opening day roster.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness

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