Biggio’s painful RBI backs Kikuchi’s 4th straight quality start

TORONTO — It wasn’t pretty, but they don’t have a column for that on the scoreboard.

Cavan Biggio took a pitch off his foot with the bases loaded to break a late tie and give the Blue Jays a 2-1 win Tuesday against the Phillies at Rogers Centre. It’s becoming an unusually common source of offense for the Blue Jays lately after they scored two runs in the exact same, painful manner a couple of weeks ago in a win over the Orioles.

This win rewards another brilliant performance from the Blue Jays’ pitching staff, which has deserved more help from its offense so many times this season.

Yusei Kikuchi was brilliant once again, throwing six innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts and no walks. Kikuchi now leads the Major Leagues with 13 starts of one or fewer runs allowed, moving him ahead of Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Kevin Gausman and Braxton Garrett. It’s been a remarkable turnaround after Kikuchi’s poor 2022 season and the hard-throwing lefty just keeps getting better as the season wears on.

The Blue Jays couldn’t scrape together much offensively before the bases-loaded ball off the foot in the eighth, but George Springer delivered in a big spot in the sixth, driving in the Blue Jays’ first run of the game with a single through the left side. Springer is another key contributor who is starting to turn a corner lately in a crowded AL Wild Card race.