TORONTO — Chris Bassitt had little time to prepare for his short-notice start on Saturday.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander found out Friday that he would be starting in place of all-star pitcher Kevin Gausman on Saturday after the latter was scratched due to discomfort in his left side.
Bassitt, however, did not disappoint.
All-Stars Whit Merrifield and Bo Bichette both homered and the Toronto Blue Jays earned a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bassitt (9-5) had five strikeouts while surrendering seven hits and zero walks in six innings of action in front of a sellout crowd of 42,328 at Rogers Centre.
"Overall, good," Bassitt said of his performance. "(The approach) was just pound the strike zone and trust your stuff. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, it was just more so the preparation leading up to it was obviously not normal."
Merrifield and George Springer each had two RBIs for Toronto (52-41), which extended its winning streak to three games.
Nate Pearson, Erik Swanson and Yimi Garcia — who got the save — held the Diamondbacks scoreless in three innings of relief.
"I thought the bullpen did a phenomenal job," Toronto manager John Schneider said.
"They kind of feed off one another," Schneider added. "They're aware of what they're doing and they're taking pride in what they're doing. When you have a good team and you have a good bullpen, it's a luxury to throw those guys out there."
Jake McCarthy had two RBIs for Arizona (52-41), which dropped its third in a row.
Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen (11-4) surrendered six hits and three walks, while striking out five batters in five innings of work. Relievers Miguel Castro, Andrew Chafin, Scott McGough gave up two runs in four innings.
"I felt like I just really couldn’t put guys away," Gallen said. "I felt like I was making decent pitches, they were fouling them off. They were just waiting me out to get pitches they could handle."
It was Gallen's first start since being the National League starter in Tuesday's All-Star game.
"We made him work," Merrifield said. "We didn't chase his stuff out of the zone early on and I think that when you do that to a pitcher, it kind of gets in their head a little bit, like 'I gotta get the ball over the plate.'
"And when we did that, we did enough to get three runs off him. Against a guy like that, it's a win."
The Blue Jay bats found their rhythm in the second inning. Merrifield produced the first hit of the game with a single. After Daulton Varsho struck out, Alejandro Kirk nailed a 93 m.p.h. fastball into right field for a double.
Gallen then walked Cavan Biggio to load the bases. Springer followed up with a two-run single into deep left field that scored Merrifield and Kirk.
In the fourth, former Blue Jay Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled, followed by a double from Emmanuel Rivera. With a full count, two outs and runners on second and third, McCarthy hit a two-run single and narrowly made it safely to first base.
To the dismay of the crowd, a review did not lead to the call being overturned and the game was tied 2-2.
Those jeers quickly turned into cheers in the bottom of the inning. Merrifield cranked a 86.2 m.p.h change-up 372 feet into left field for his sixth homer of the season, with the ball bouncing off the top of the wall and over.
Bichette tacked on another homer in the eight inning — his 16th of the season — with a shot to left centre field off McGough to make it a 4-2 game.
Merrifield picked up his second RBI when his sacrifice fly scored Brandon Belt in the eighth.
INJURIES
The Blue Jays said an MRI revealed no damage and that Gausman is day to day.
Meanwhile, reliever Jordan Romano was not available Saturday after he exited Tuesday's All-Star game with left lower back tightness. Schneider said the closer had an MRI that "came back clean" and that he'd be "taking it day by day."
ON DECK
Yusei Kikuchi (7-3) is scheduled to start for the Blue Jays in Sunday's series finale. Tommy Henry (5-1) is set to take the mound for the Diamondbacks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2023.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
