A strong final stretch for José Berríos could be key to Blue Jays’ success

BOSTON — The sixth inning was going to be his last. José Berríos was facing the heart of the Red Sox order for the third time. He opened the inning striking out Alex Verdugo and J.D. Martinez then, after a mound visit from pitching coach Pete Walker to discuss a plan of attack, Berríos got Rafael Devers to fly out to right field.

Walking off the field, Berríos conferred with Alejandro Kirk, fist-bumping the 23-year-old catcher for helping him get through an outing where Berríos admitted he maybe didn’t feel at his best physically. But he was every bit as effective as the Blue Jays needed him to be in a six-inning, two-run performance in the 3-2, extra-innings win over the Red Sox on Wednesday.

“I want to keep competing, I want to try to make pitches and to be able to throw six innings and finish the way that I finished — that’s why I gave like a bump to (Kirk),” Berríos said after the start.

Even amid a curious, confusing and inconsistent season for Berríos, the Blue Jays right-hander remains key to the team’s success down the stretch and — if all goes well — potentially beyond. Atop the rotation are Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah, who have led the way this season. For Berríos, an up-and-down year has instead been his season-long narrative. But with about six weeks to go, there’s still the opportunity to finish strong. The Blue Jays, in fact, may need him to if they want to reach their ultimate postseason goal. A successful playoff team is often built around four solid starters. If Berríos is at his best, the Blue Jays have just that.

“He’s a huge part of this rotation and a huge part of our success,” Walker said. “We’ve won a lot of games with him out there. We know that and we know he’s given us a good effort. Going out there and giving us a quality start, we have a great chance to win and he can do that more times than not. But he is probably the key piece of the rotation moving forward.”

There was optimism that Berríos could build off his latest successful outing against the Yankees, in which he allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts. In Boston, Berríos again pitched well, allowing two runs — on a home run — on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts over six innings in a game highlighted by strong pitching, highlight-reel defence and a game-winning double in the 10th inning from George Springer.

If Berríos’ confidence grew after the outing against the Yankees, perhaps it can start to snowball after his night in Boston.

“I think he’s right now just really feeling like the pitcher that he always has been over the course of his career,” Blue Jays interim manager John Schneider said.

About that guy. After signing a seven-year, $131 million extension with the Blue Jays in the offseason, this is not the season Berríos, the Blue Jays or anyone expected from the 28-year-old right-hander. Over his career, he’s been as steady as they come, which was a reason why the Blue Jays made the big investment they did.

Between 2017 and 2021 for the Twins and the Blue Jays, he had a 3.74 ERA, reliably taking the ball every five days. This year, he’s stayed as durable, but the results haven’t been what they’ve been in the past. Before play Wednesday, his 5.39 ERA was the worst among all 54 qualified starters. Though, in speaking to people around the club, Berríos and his 2022 results have fallen more on the side of confusing rather than concerning.

“The more we’ve looked and tried to understand why his performance hasn’t been quite as good as it’s been in the past, the more confident we are he will return to his previous performance,” said general manager Ross Atkins. “He’s doing so many things well and doing so many things as he’s done them in the past that we’ve continued to have a great deal of confidence in him.”

Of his 24 starts before Wednesday, the Blue Jays had won 17, or about 70 percent. In those outings, his ERA is 3.31. In the seven team losses Berríos has been on the mound for, his ERA is 12.04. Berríos has benefitted from more run support than any of his rotation mates, with the offence contributing 6.1 runs on average in his starts, which has helped his win record. But the gist of Berríos’ season is the good starts have been just that, while his bad starts have been quite rough.

“I’ll take that regardless of what the bad ones were,” said bullpen coach Matt Buschmann, discussing Berríos’ winning percentage. “I just know they’re losses and they just happen to be bad losses (from) his standpoint, but you’ll take the outcome. I think the hard part that I know that he struggles with is in those losses, it’s trying to give innings so that we can cover those games.”

Talking to people around the club, underlying numbers on Berríos’ stuff don’t point to an obvious fix. To some extent, he could be getting unlucky, although his expected ERA is 5.35 and he’s allowing a higher hard-hit percentage (44.4 percent) than ever. Some bad outcomes could be the result of poor pitch selection or sequencing. The Blue Jays have also made subtle shifts to his delivery recently in an effort to combat the possibility of pitch tipping — if that was a thing — while also helping him smooth out his motion.

If anything, his major flaw has been his fastball command. At his best, he’s locating his sinker inside and his four-seam fastball up in the zone. When he’s aggressive with his fastball, his breaking ball can work off that. But, according to Statcast, Berríos is throwing more heart of the zone pitches this year than ever before — at 32.4 percent compared to 31.1 percent last year. He’s been getting punished for mistakes, too, with 27 home runs allowed — including a two-run shot on Wednesday to Red Sox first baseman Franchy Cordero — which leads all qualified starters.

“Some pitchers can get away with in the middle of the zone a little bit more,” Walker said. “José certainly has a plus-fastball, but he still has to locate his two-seam especially, and then the four-seam up plays better.”

There is no doubt Berríos continues to work at his craft. Those around the team say his work ethic is unparalleled. It’s rare to find him sitting still as he bounces from the weight room to the field to the bullpen. In workouts, Berríos said he’s honed in on quality rather than quantity. A focus has been to feel fresh every outing.

The coaching staff has been working with him on his mechanics throughout the season, too, in an effort to get him performing at his best. To his credit, he’s been open to suggestions including the latest tweak to keep his hands up higher in his delivery. On his fastball location, the focus has been targeting certain spots.

“It’s hard to implement something or even for a coach to suggest something, especially in the middle of August to a guy who has (900) innings under his belt or whatever, so that’s props to Berríos,” said Ross Stripling, who’s made similar in-season tweaks with the Blue Jays, too.

To hypothesize why Berríos is having the worst year of his career in 2022, one guess might be he came into it with heightened expectations based on his significant paycheck. It’s possible that pressure has weighed on him, though when asked, Berríos said it hasn’t.

“I think I’ve been able to be me every day,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t have the numbers the way I want them, but other than that, I think I’ve been the same guy.”

An ultra-competitor, the most frustrating part of the season for Berríos hasn’t been his inflated ERA, per se, but rather, those outings where he’s not put his team in the best position to win. That said, as disappointing as the year has been at times, Berríos has kept up his positive demeanour. His coaches and teammates remarked about his professionalism amid the difficult year.

“I really respect that from a guy that obviously isn’t having the season that he wants or anyone expected,” said Gausman. “If there’s anyone that could be bitter or just kind of like closed off, it could be him, but he hasn’t been that way at all. And, he has a really good presence.”

Berríos said he’s learned to not dwell on the negative. “We don’t earn anything being negative,” he said. His three young children — including his two sons who follow him around the clubhouse like his shadow — also provide a refreshing perspective. “I’m going to be always a hero for them, no matter how I pitch,” he said.

Lately, though, Berríos has been pitching well — like the guy who was supposed to lead the rotation. If he can keep it up and not recede into earlier bad habits, a strong final stretch for Berríos is within grasp, which could be the key for the Blue Jays.

“I feel so strong, we have a good rhythm,” Berríos said. “I want to keep building on top of that.”

(Photo: Paul Rutherford / USA Today)