Blue Jays: Shane Bieber strikes out six in organizational debut with Buffalo Bisons

Bieber started his outing by getting back-to-back strikeouts on Jose Azocar and Luke Ritter before Canadian Jared Young drove a single back up the middle to put a runner on. A pop-up to the catcher behind home plate would finish the inning for Bieber. The second inning saw the Mets put a run on the board, with a leadoff walk and a balk by Bieber putting a runner on second with one out. He would strike out David Villar for the second out of the inning, but a single by Omar De Los Santos would plate the runner. Bieber would escape the inning by picking off De Los Santos at first base.

The third strikeout would come in the third inning before Azocar would get on base via a single. The runner would be tossed at second on a stolen base attempt, with newcomer Brandon Valenzuela darting the ball to the right side of the bag for the tag. It was a fortunate play for the Bisons, as a low fastball would be golfed over the right-centre field wall for a solo shot and a 2-0 lead for the Mets.

From there, Bieber was in cruise control the rest of the way, getting two groundouts and a strikeout on former Blue Jays prospect Luis De Los Santos to finish the fourth inning. He would allow his fifth hit of the day to start the top of the fifth inning, but would escape the inning with his sixth strikeout, a forceout, and a groundout to end the frame.

Of his six strikeouts, three of them were called strikes while the other three were strikeouts swinging. The right-hander was sitting between 90 MPH and 94.5 MPH with his fastball and was mixing his slider and changeup well with the fastball offering. He also tossed the occasional cutter to throw hitters off as well.

Following this outing, Bieber will likely continue to pitch in Buffalo for the foreseeable future, with a potential return in mid-August likely more plausible for the newest Blue Jays starter.