After a 10-1 pounding led to a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night, the Toronto Blue Jays bounced back on Wednesday afternoon with a win.
A quality start from Chris Bassitt and three hits from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led the Blue Jays to a 5-3 victory and a split of their two-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Toronto opened the scoring in the top of the third inning. After the lineup turned over for the first time, George Springer hit a single and stole second base and Guerrero drove him in with a single.
The Phillies got the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning on two walks and a single to centre field. Bassitt was able to limit the damage to just one run off of a sacrifice fly from Kyle Schwarber, as J.T. Realmuto grounded out and Bryce Harper flew out to right field.
The Blue Jays regained their lead in the sixth inning. Vladdy led off the inning with a single and Danny Jansen put runners on second and third with a double. Bo Bichette drove in a run with a single, Davis Schneider followed up with another run-scoring single, and Kevin Kiermaier added a third run later in the inning.
Bassitt cleared through the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings without any damage but ran into some trouble in the seventh. He got Alec Bohm to ground out for the first out of the inning and then allowed a single to Brandon Marsh and a double to Nick Castellanos. Zach Pop came into the game and got the next two batters out to end the threat.
The final line for Bassitt: 6 1/3 IP, two earned runs, three hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. That was a big performance from The Hound, one the Blue Jays badly needed.
Jordan Romano came into the game in the ninth inning and worked around three hits to pick up his fifth save of the season and first since April 28 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Phillies had the tying run on second base and only one out, but Romano got Kody Clemens and former Blue Jay Whit Merrifield to pop out to end the game.
Next up… The Blue Jays will be off again on Thursday and then they’ll host the Minnesota Twins for a three-game weekend series in Toronto. It’ll be the first meeting between the two teams since last year’s Wild Card series.
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