Chris Bassitt pitched his second career shutout as the Toronto Blue Jays posted a 3-0 victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.
George Springer delivered the tiebreaking single in the fifth inning, and Daulton Varsho homered in the eighth for Toronto, which improved to 10-3 at home.
Bassitt (5-2) allowed two hits and two walks and struck out eight while outdueling Atlanta fireballer Spencer Strider. Bassitt threw 103 pitches while winning his fourth consecutive decision and extending his scoreless streak to 20 innings.
Bassitt’s other shutout came on May 27, 2021, when he was a member of the Oakland Athletics. On that occasion, he gave up two hits and one walk while striking out nine in a 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
The complete-game shutout was the first for Toronto since Mark Buehrle blanked the Washington Nationals on June 3, 2015.
In the ninth inning on Friday, Bassitt retired Matt Olson on a grounder to second and struck out Austin Riley and Sean Murphy to complete his gem.
Eddie Rosario and Ronald Acuna Jr. had the Atlanta hits.
Strider (4-1) struck out 12 in 6 2/3 innings to raise his season count to a major-league-high 79 in just 46 2/3 frames. He was charged with two runs and gave up five hits and one walk.
Bassitt retired the first 13 batters he faced before Rosario doubled to right with one out in the fifth. The Braves eventually had the bases loaded with two outs before Orlando Arcia fouled out to right.
The Blue Jays pushed across a run in the bottom of the inning after the first two batters were retired.
Whit Merrifield singled to right and stole second, and Kevin Kiermaier followed with a one-out walk. Springer came up and singled to left to score Merrifield and give Toronto the 1-0 lead. Kiermaier was thrown out at the plate on the play.
Strider gave up a one-out double to Brandon Belt in the seventh and then struck out Merrifield to complete his outing. Danny Young walked Kiermaier and Springer and then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed pinch runner Nathan Lukes to score.
Varsho unloaded with a blast to center off Kirby Yates in one out in the eighth. The homer was Varsho’s sixth of the season.
–Field Level Media
