TORONTO — “They always get better!”
The once common cry of outrage grew to a fan cliché and has now morphed into a bit of a sarcastic meme.
To be fair, empirical data shows that players don’t always get better when they leave the Mariners. Some players do get better (Chris Taylor), some get worse (Robinson Cano) and some remain basically the same player they were during the time in Seattle — terrific (Nelson Cruz), terrible (Chone Figgins) or tradable (too many to list).
That brings us to the curious case of Yusei Kikuchi. Is he better? Is he worse? Or is he the same talented, but frustratingly inconsistent pitcher that tantalized and tormented the Mariners and their fans for three seasons.
On Monday night, the “good” version of Kikuchi, which didn’t appear quite enough in his tenure the Mariners, showed up for his new team to torture his old team because, well, of course he did. In a performance similar to those early outings that helped earn a spot on the American League All-Star team in the 2021, Kikuchi delivered his best outing of the 2022 season, leading the Blue Jays to a relatively easy 6-2 win.
Kikuchi tossed six shutout innings, allowing just one hit — a double to Jesse Winker in the fifth inning — while walking three batters and striking out six.
His departure from the Mariners wasn’t met with much consternation. Signed to a four-year, $56 million contract before the 2019 season, Seattle declined a four-year club option, turning the fourth year into a $13 million player option. Searching for a new start, Kikuchi declined the player option and opted for free agency.
Pitching with rhythm and pace and utilizing a recently revamped slider/cutter that he debuted in his previous outing, Kikuchi didn’t allow a hit through the first four innings. The only batter to reach base over that span was a walk to Ty France in the second at-bat of the game.
Winker doubled to start the fifth inning but never moved from second base. Eugenio Suarez popped out in foul territory and Luis Torrens worked a walk, but Kikuchi came back to strike out Steven Souza Jr. and get Dylan Moore to line out to left to end the threat.
Kikuchi came back to work a scoreless sixth, issuing another walk to France, to end his outings with 90 pitches and 55 strikes. He wasn’t completely efficient with only nine first-pitch strikes to 22 batters. But on those 13 1-0 counts, he came back with a strike nine times. He got 11 swing-and-misses and 15 called strikes in the outing.
Seattle starter Chris Flexen gave the Mariners a decent outing, working 5 1/3 innings and allowing three runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
The Blue Jays grabbed an early 2-0 lead with solo homers off Flexen from Bo Bichette in the first inning and Matt Chapman in the second inning.
The third run allowed came in the sixth after Flexen exited the game following his second walk of the inning. Right-hander Penn Murfee gave up a two-out single to Raimel Tapia that made it 3-0.
In Flexen’s seven starts this season, the Mariners have scored a total of six runs with four of those runs coming April 22 against the Royals. They’ve been shutout four times and scored one run twice in the other outings.
The Mariners first run came in the seventh inning against Kikuchi’s replacement — right-hander Trevor Richards.
With one out, Suarez sent a Richards fastball over the wall in left field for a solo homer. It was the 200th homer in his career. He is the 23rd active player in baseball to reach 200 home runs.
The Mariners loaded the bases against Richards as Torrens and pinch-hitter Mike Ford worked walks and pinch-hitter Adam Frazier singled to right. Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo went to veteran right-hander Yimi Garcia to clean up the mess. Garcia got Abraham Toro to hit a weak fly ball to shallow right field that the less-than-speedy Torrens couldn’t tag up on and jammed Ty France on a sinker, producing a rally-ending ground out to first base.
The Mariners bullpen allowed the game to get out of reach. Wyatt Mills gave up a two-run single to squatty pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk in the seventh and Roenis Elias, who was activated for Monday’s game, allowed an RBI single to Bichette in the eighth inning.
Seattle scored its second run in the ninth inning on Adam Frazier’s RBI single off Ross Stripling.
