WASHINGTON — One day after changing their tone, the Blue Jays changed their lineup.
Bo Bichette suddenly dropped to fifth, leaving a new top three of George Springer, Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed by cleanup hitter Justin Turner and Bichette. Lineup tinkering in May rarely means much, but for a Blue Jays team struggling to get out of the mud offensively, these are signals of something much larger.
For a moment, it looked like a stroke of genius. The Blue Jays piled on four runs in the first inning thanks to the Nationals, who seemed just as motivated to help get Toronto’s offense back on track with a comedy of errors. Then, Washington stopped helping, and the Blue Jays stopped scoring — until Kevin Kiermaier finally broke through with a two-run homer in the eighth. They’ll take the 6-3 win with a smile, but even with a new-look lineup, we haven’t seen a new-look offense just yet.
Bichette’s game lasted just five innings, too, after the Blue Jays’ shortstop was ejected following a strikeout to end the inning. Bichette disagreed with the called third strike and slammed his helmet down in frustration, and even though he was facing away from the home plate umpire, the toss came quickly. Now batting .202 with a .542 OPS, this may be the toughest stretch we’ve seen Bichette go through as a pro.
“He holds himself to such a high standard,” manager John Schneider said before the game. “He’s frustrated. He hit the ball hard twice yesterday. I think he’s really getting better. When he’s getting his good swings off, he’s going to be fine. It’s hard when you’re not getting the results you want. I think Bo takes it especially hard because of his personality. I just want him to keep going. “He has as good a track record as you can have.”
Schneider has also said a dozen times in recent weeks that when Bichette gets hot, he turns into one of the best hitters in baseball. That could come at any point, and the Blue Jays need to see it soon — especially with the rest of this offense still searching for something more consistent than what we’ve seen so far.
