I felt I gave Bo Bichette kind of the short shift in the recap last night (a normal thing; generally, I want the recap up pretty quickly, so some things get missed).
I was a little worried about Bo. Not
in the way some on Twitter were. I read a lot of people saying that he shouldn’t be playing, and I thought, ‘Do you really think idiots run the team that is representing the AL in the World Series?’ They wouldn’t play him if they didn’t think he could play.
In the top of the first, he got a straightforward ground ball and made the play. I was happy his first play was easy. It was a play that I could have made (3 times out of 10). A nice way of getting him into the game.
In the first inning, Bo singled. Yeah, it wasn’t hit hard, but he made contact and it bounced through the infield. It looked like he was aiming at the hole between first and second base, since they were holding Vlad on first. He’s been great, all season, at hitting to places where there isn’t a fielder.
In the second, Bo took a throw from Andres Gimenez for a force at second. Simple play, but, heck, it shows he knows how to play second.
In the top of the third inning, Bo got a tough ground ball, to the shortstop side of first and made a great jump, spin and throw. It is the sort of play we’ve seen him make (and occasionally throw away) at short. Must have been tough on his knees, but he made a perfect throw.
In the bottom of the third, Bo hit into a double play. He wasn’t running full out when he crossed first base. I don’t know how much of that was because he knew he was out (running to first you can see the play and you can tell when you are going to be out) and how much of it was because he can’t run full out yet.
In the sixth inning, Bo took a walk. It is usually hard to walk him. But the first three pitches were well below the zone and, after a called strike (right at the edge of the zone) and a foul ball, Bo took a pitch up and away.
John took him out for a pinch runner. It started the nine-run sixth inning.
The game went as well as it could have for Bo (and for the Jays). I thought John did the right thing, taking him out of the game. Two reasons:
- At the time, the game was tied, and having someone who could go from first to third would be a good thing in that moment.
- And it was good to get Bo out while things were good. Everything went well for him, get him out of there.
Anyway, his game went a long way to make me feel better about him being on the roster. Like George Springer said (among many others), no one is 100% at this time of year. After a long season, there will always be aches and pains. Players just have to play through them.
John may give him tomorrow off. It will likely depend on how he’s feeling, but I could understand if they want to hold him back to pinch hit tomorrow.
Anyway, great to see you on the field again, Bo. Great job.
What do you think?
