Blue Jays takeaways: Alejandro Kirk does the not-so-little things right in win over Orioles

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This article was published 01/09/2021 (1512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 5-4 win over the Orioles on Wednesday at Rogers Centre:

Rookie Alejandro Kirk got to the big leagues at the tender age of 21 on the strength of his bat and his advanced approach at the plate, with the consensus being that he still had a lot of work to do behind the plate.

Not only did the Blue Jays rookie get the job done with the bat Wednesday, but he made a couple of terrific plays on defence, as well.

His first step was in the wrong direction, though, as Kirk rushed a throw after blocking a wild pitch in the first inning and couldn’t get a late-breaking Austin Hays, who was dead to rights at second.

The young backstop made up for that in the sixth inning when he picked Austin Wynns off first base. In the seventh, Kirk wisely stepped in front of the plate and grabbed Bo Bichette’s relay throw, which had no chance of getting Ryan Mountcastle with the tying run, and threw a laser to third to erase Trey Mancini, who was trying to advance on the throw.

At the plate, Kirk walked and singled, but his biggest contribution came in the bottom of the eighth, when he came up with runners and first and second and nobody out in a tie game. Kirk jumped all over Dillon Tate’s first pitch, driving it to the wall in dead centre where it was run down by Cedric Mullins. The deep fly ball allowed both runners to tag up, though, and set the stage for the game winning sacrifice fly that followed.

• Curious: In the bottom of the sixth, with a runner on, one out and the Jays leading by a run, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde brought in lefty Tanner Scott to face the left-handed hitting Corey Dickerson.

Scott won the battle, getting a double-play ball to second to end the inning.

When the Jays took the field on defence, it was Randal Grichuk in centre, coming in to shore up the outfield defence with a one-run lead. Teoscar Hernandez, who had started in centre for the first time this season, moved to right field and Dickerson went to the bench.

The defensive part of the move made sense, even though Dickerson is a better defensive outfielder than either Hernandez or Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who stayed in the game in left. He made the last out of the inning, so his spot in the lineup was the farthest one away from hitting again.

The curious part: Why let him hit? If Grichuk was going to come in defensively anyway, why not take advantage of the platoon matchup and bring him in to hit for Dickerson, avoiding the lefty-lefty confrontation?

To be fair, it’s not as though Dickerson is a zero against lefties, as some left-handed hitters are. He went into that at-bat hitting .256/.327/.372 against southpaws and has been one of the Jays’ hottest hitters, posting a .974 OPS over the past week.

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What the decision seemed to show, though, is where Grichuk sits right now in the eyes of the Jays’ decision-makers. Coming off an August that saw him hit just .165/.258/.291 with two home runs, they would rather have had Dickerson take a shot against a left-hander than give the opportunity to the right-handed hitting Grichuk.

Another question: If you’re going to improve your defence in centre field to protect a one-run lead late in a game, why not bring in your best defensive outfielder, Jarrod Dyson?

As it turned out, Grichuk wound up coming to bat in the bottom of the eighth and was the one who hit that game-winning sacrifice fly. After that, the call went to Dyson for the elite glove in centre field, sending Grichuk to right, Hernandez to left and Gurriel to the bench.

It was a curious combination of moves, to be sure, but it wound up working perfectly in the end.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness