ARLINGTON, Texas – All throughout Bo Bichette’s increasingly torrid stretch at the plate, the question everyone keeps asking hitting coach Guillermo Martinez is what exactly the Toronto Blue Jays’ star shortstop is doing differently.
Tweak his stance, maybe? Make a subtle adjustment to his swing? Shift his approach in the box, perhaps? Anything to explain the sudden surge in his production?
“For me, the biggest thing that I’ve seen is how much he competes in his own practice,” Martinez said before Bichette ripped three more doubles, knocked in a run, scored and walked in an 11-7 romp over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night. “That’s allowed him to free up his mind. If you can make practice a little more difficult, it translates into games.”
For Bichette, it very much has over a video-game-esque run at the plate. Over nine September games, he’s now batting .525/.558/1.175 with 18 RBIs and 13 runs scored and if you stretch it back to Aug. 21, that line is .452/.471/.863 with 10 doubles, a triple, six homers, 20 RBIs and 17 runs scored.
That hot streak coincides with Bichette going back to a more aggressive practice technique he employed at times last year, in which he’d take live batting practice at-bats in the cage, “priming his eyes and his body for what he’s going to face in the game,” said Martinez.
“We’ll give him different counts,” the coach continued. “He calls out what he’s looking for and the hitting coaches, even Tito (Hector Lebron, the club’s interpreter), will throw those soft dimple balls so he can see an arm and more velocity, more break.”
Hitters can be reluctant to use the high velocity hitting machines, especially before games, to avoid the risk of getting jammed or making contact off the end of the bat, so the Blue Jays use the dimple balls to mitigate the impact on a hitter’s hands.
Still, such intense practice can be taxing and, depending on how they feel, hitters might not always want to take game-speed reps just before taking the field. Martinez said Bichette used it off and last season, helping him out of a .636 OPS August to a .976 OPS September/October.
“It’s funny because every year is different and guys find different routines throughout the course of the season and make adjustments throughout,” Martinez explained. “He’s found something that’s going to get him locked in and he’s just riding with it right now.”
The Blue Jays are doing the same thing around him, too, improving to 8-1 on their 10-day road trip by scoring in double digits for the first time since a 10-3 win over St. Louis on July 26.
Alejandro Kirk’s two-run double and Santiago Espinal’s two-run single opened the scoring in the first. After Espinal’s RBI double, Raimel Tapia’s three-run homer and Bichette’s RBI double in the third, every hitter in the lineup crossed the plate before a weary crowd of 28,340.
All the offence came in handy on a night Kevin Gausman never seemed to lock into a rhythm. The Rangers ran his pitch count up early, Adolis Garcia hit three-run homer in the first that narrowed the Blue Jays lead to 4-3 and after he dodged traffic the next four frames, gave up a two-run shot to Sam Huff in the sixth that ended his night.
That he only got through 5.1 innings wasn’t ideal with the Blue Jays planning a bullpen game Sunday so they can push Jose Berrios, who’d be on turn for the finale, to Monday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Zach Pop gave up a pair before escaping that sixth, while Anthony Bass, Adam Cimber and Tim Mayza handled the final three frames in a bit more leverage than the early innings might have suggested.
That sets the Blue Jays up with Trevor Richards, Yusei Kikuchi, David Phelps and Julian Merryweather all fresh for Sunday having not pitched at all at Globe Life Field, with Yimi Garcia and Jordan Romano rested after throwing Friday.
Another big performance at the plate would certainly come in handy and Bichette can certainly help drive it. Over the past three weeks he’s turned a solid season into a strong one, dragging a Blue Jays team that’s needed it right along with him.
“This game is really difficult, really tough and a lot of guys can be broken – many people say it’s a game of failure and he’s not willing to fail,” said Martinez. “That’s the biggest thing for me when I watch Bo. He’s not willing to fail. And even though he’s hasn’t been where he wants to be, he comes out every single day and competes. He wants to be the best in the game and he doesn’t give up. That’s the biggest thing.”
