{"id":121620,"date":"2025-06-22T00:54:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T00:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121620\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T00:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T00:54:20","slug":"bichette-aggressive-as-blue-jays-leadoff-hitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121620\/","title":{"rendered":"Bichette aggressive as Blue Jays\u2019 leadoff hitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 In just seven weeks Bo Bichette has gone from no home runs to leading the Toronto Blue Jays in round trippers.<\/p>\n

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Bichette smashed the first pitch he saw over the wall in centre field on Saturday for his 11th homer of the year as Toronto routed the Chicago White Sox 7-1. The 27-year-old shortstop couldn\u2019t really explain what\u2019s changed for him since he hit his first homer on May 3 after not having any for the first 16 games of the Blue Jays\u2019 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just every season is kind of different,\u201d said Bichette. \u201cI started the year getting a lot of hits and competing really well with no power, and then started hitting for some power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I mean, sometimes it just takes one to kind of understand the feeling and then go through the season and try to put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Just 76 games into the season and Bichette\u2019s already matched or exceeded the home run output in three of his other seasons (2019, 2020, 2024). His best-ever year for power at the plate was when he had 29 homers in 2021.<\/p>\n

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He moved ahead of George Springer (10) for most home runs on the Blue Jays this season with his first-inning blast on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m just trying to go out there and compete every day and do as best I can,\u201d said Bichette.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Springer, who batted fifth on Saturday, has been a leadoff hitter for most of his 12 years in Major League Baseball. Springer\u2019s 60 leadoff home runs are second on the all-time list behind Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson (81).<\/p>\n

Bichette said that Springer\u2019s been giving him some advice on how to hit for power when leading off.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best of all time to do it and he\u2019s helped me,\u201d said Bichette, who has two leadoff homers in the past four games. \u201cMost of it has been how to manage knowing you\u2019re probably getting a fastball and maybe not being too excited about it but also being ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto manager John Schneider said that as much as Springer has helped, Bichette\u2019s also just a natural.<\/p>\n

\u201cBo can do that, he\u2019s that talented of a hitter,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cThe leadoff spot is a tricky one, because you\u2019re probably gonna get a first pitch fastball.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have to be kind of on time and do your homework a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

BERRIOS DELIVERS \u2014 Blue Jays starting pitcher Jose Berrios (3-3) allowed one unearned run on two hits and three walks over 7 2\/3 innings, striking out five.<\/p>\n

The quality start was critical after Toronto used seven relief pitchers in Friday\u2019s 7-1 loss, a scheduled bullpen day. Berrios threw 95 pitches and earned a standing ovation from the 41,488 fans at Rogers Centre when he left the game in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in today having that on my mind, but also it\u2019s my day,\u201d said Berrios. \u201cThis is my job, and that\u2019s my goal, trying to be longer in the game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was able to throw seven and two outs today, and I helped, so I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider was impressed with how varied Berrios\u2019s arsenal of pitches were in the outing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s using both sides of the plate, good mix of his pitches, stick in his heater when he needs to,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cThe strikeouts late, I think were huge for him, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been consistent all year, and today was exactly what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 In just seven weeks Bo Bichette has gone from no home runs to leading the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,10864,2554,4,185,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-121620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-blue-jays-baseball","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","16":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114724291504293225","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}