The Atlanta Braves will have nightmares about Chris Bassitt. The Toronto Blue Jays pitcher scored the second shutout of his career with a 3-0 win at the Rogers Center on Friday.
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No shooter had played a full game for Canada’s only major league baseball team since Marcus Stroman in 2017.
Bassitt (5-2), who joined the Jays this summer after spending last season with the New York Mets, was imperial in nine innings on the mound. He only allowed two hits and just as many earned runs.
His former Braves teammate Matt Olson also threw flowers at him before the duel.
“He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen,” Olson said, according to Sportsnet. A lot of guys just rely on the quality of their pitches to beat you. He’s more the type of thrower who plays chess and analyzes the swings.
Olson also suffered one of eight strikeouts Bassitt managed in the game.
As for the Braves, superb young pitcher Spencer Strider (4-1) added a loss to his tally for the first time this season. On the contrary, he wasn’t bad, allowing just five hits and one earned run in six and two-thirds of the innings. He also passed 12 batters in the mitt.
George Springer opened the scoring with a run single in the fifth inning. A mistake allowed Nathan Lukes to double the Jays’ lead, then Daulton Varsho capped the win with an eighth-round arm stretch.
John Schneider’s side therefore recovered well after being overwhelmed by the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
The Jays and Braves will face off again in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday.
A rare carousel
In Baltimore, Cedric Mullins completed the twelfth carousel in Orioles history with a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Mullins, an outfielder in his sixth season with the Maryland team, hit a triple home run in the eighth inning.
Previously, he had hit a single in the third inning, a triple in the fifth, and a double in the seventh.
After a stellar start to the season, the Pirates have lost nine of their last ten games.