On Monday, in the top half of the 7th inning in the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox, Jays’ starter Chris Bassitt promptly removed himself from the game with an apparent injury after bouncing a pitch to the plate to White Sox centerfielder Luis Robert Jr.
Bassitt was seen afterwards walking around and about in the Jays’ dugout after coming out of the game, talking with players, trainers and coaches, hopefully indicating that his injury wasn’t too serious.
Shortly after, upon further update of his situation, the Jays have now revealed that Bassitt left the game due to right lower back tightness.
Bassitt was one of the key acquisitions in free agency by the Blue Jays during the 2022-23 offseason to help stabilize their starting rotation with the departure of Ross Stripling to the San Francisco Giants. After getting off to a horrible season debut in his first regular season game in a Jays’ uniform back on April 2nd against the St. Louis Cardinals in which he gave up nine runs, 10 hits, including four home runs in just 3.1 innings pitched, he has bounced back nicely with four consecutive quality starts, including one in Monday’s game against the White Sox. In doing so, he has now lowered his ERA back down below five, with a 1.25 WHIP, with 21 strikeouts over 28 innings pitched.
The Blue Jays’ rotation has been rock solid and quite stable of late, with none of the starters giving up more than two earned runs in six consecutive games. This all started with Bassitt, following a rare blowout game by Gausman against the Houston Astros last week. Hopefully, Bassitt’s exit in Monday’s game is just a precaution and that we will see him back and ready again in his next start to continue his dominance with the rest of the staff this coming weekend.