Blue Jays: June Starting Rotation, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Bad

Jose Berrios – 2-2, 6.28 ERA, 1.29 WHIP
To be honest, if I put Kevin Gausman in the good, Jose Berrios could have potentially been there as well, but recent bias has put him in the bad.  Berrios had a really rough finish to the month of June as he got hit hard against the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers.  In his final two outings he surrendered a combined five home runs, which led to 14 runs in just 6.2 innings pitched.  The Blue Jays lost both of those starts.

The bright side to Berrios starts was that his control was not the issue as he allowed just three free passes while facing 39 batters.  The bad part is that he was getting hit hard.  It seemed every batter knew what pitch was coming and they were teeing off on him.  Berrios showed a bit of these struggles earlier in the year as during the Season Opener he was able to get just one out before being removed from the game after surrendering four runs.  He also failed to get out of the fifth inning twice in May.

The bright side is Berrios provided three quality starts in June that led to the Blue Jays picking up wins in each of those games.  Berrios was outstanding to start the month which included a 13 strikeout game against the Minnesota Twins on June 14 and in each of the first three games he pitched at least seven innings, including going eight innings on June 10 against the Detroit Tigers surrendering just one run.

I have zero concern that Berrios and Pete Walker won’t be able to make the proper adjustments, he has too long of a track record not to continue to be a front of the rotation starter.

Yusei Kikuchi – 1-3, 7.17 ERA, 1.97 WHIP
If you woke up on July 1 and just looked at the box score from the night before you would think the pitcher making $16 Million this year had to be a dominant pitcher.  Yusei Kikuchi was dominant against Tampa Bay Rays in the last game of the month.  He pitched six innings, allowing just one run while striking out eight.  However, this was the only game in his six starts of the month that he was able to get through the fourth inning and was pulled before the third inning was complete in two of the starts.

Kikuchi allowed more home runs and walks than any other pitcher in the rotation, despite providing the least amount of innings.  He finished the month with an ERA of 7.17 and had it not been for that final start it would have been more than two runs higher.  Hopefully his last outing of the month can help him moving forward, but he’ll have to have a few more starts like his June 30 appearance to gain confidence from the fan base.