The Baltimore Orioles have once again picked up another win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Orioles defeated the Blue Jays 13-8, leaving the Blue Jays with an 11-12 record with two ties during Spring Training. Once again, the Blue Jays blew a late lead, as they were up 7-5 heading into the top of the seventh, before the Orioles scored eight runs in the final three innings.
Let’s look at some things worth mentioning.
Things worth mentioning…
Chris Bassitt had a rough game, finishing with a line of 3.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. This is far off his last start, when he finished 5.1 innings and struck out nine while giving up just one earned run.
As for the stuff, over half of Bassitt’s 83 pitches were sinkers, as he threw it 44 times and had a 17 whiff% on it. Moreover, his velocity on his sinker averaged 90.6 mph, down from his 91.9 mph average last season. The cutter was his best pitch of the afternoon, generating five swings and misses on 12 total swings.
Daulton Varsho absolutely obliterated a ball to his pull side for his first home run of the season. He also walked and struck out on Tuesday and is now batting .371. Varsho has looked good this Spring Training and a bounce back season could be in the works.
Gabriel Martinez was Varsho’s replacement, and just like Varsho, Martinez went deep for his first home run of Spring Training. On top of that, he also hit his third double of the spring. After breaking out in 2022, Martinez struggled in 2023 slashing .242/.300/.374 with 12 homers in 448 plate appearances in High-A. His great spring is hopefully a sign of things to come.
George Springer is on a redemption tour after a subpar 2023 season. On Tuesday, he went 2-3 with two singles while also driving in two runs. This spring, he’s now batting .387 with a 1.196 OPS.
Alejandro Kirk is also on a redemption tour after a subpar season with the bat (but a gold glove nomination). On Tuesday, he went 1-1 with his fourth double of the spring, on top of the three home runs he’s hit. Not just that, but he walked twice to reach base all three times.
Yimi García had a clean inning, finishing with a line of 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. With injuries to both Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson, García will be used in high leverage to start the season depending on the health of those two. He has a 2.25 ERA this spring training, and has been in the upper 90s with the heater.
Chad Green has had a rough Spring Training if you can recall, but Tuesday was better than the prior outings. Green finished with a line of 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K and a home run allowed, which gives him an 11.12 ERA this spring. Hopefully, he pitches better in the regular season.
Connor Cooke had a rough outing on Tuesday, finishing with a line of 0.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, which ballooned his ERA to 9.53. Coming into this outing, he had a 1.80 ERA in five innings pitched, so don’t look too much into the numbers just yet.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Wednesday as they’ll head to CoolToday Park in North Port, Florida, to take on Atlanta. Bowden Francis is set to start that game, and you can watch it on Sportsnet at 1:05 PM ET.
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