Blue Jays' Yusei Kikuchi: Stuck with tough loss Friday

Kikuchi (2-3) took the loss Friday as the Blue Jays were downed 3-2 by the Twins, giving up two runs on four hits over eight innings. He struck out three without walking a batter.

The left-hander pounded the strike zone, firing 68 of 97 pitches for strikes in his fifth quality start of the year, and he generated plenty of weak contact -- even Carlos Santana's solo homer in the fifth inning had a sub-100 mph exit velocity and barely made it over the fence down the right-field line. It was the longest outing of Kikuchi's Toronto tenure, and his longest MLB start since he gave the Mariners a shutout win in August 2019, which coincidentally was against the Jays. Kikuchi will take a 2.64 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 46:9 K:BB through 47.2 innings into his next trip to the mound, which is scheduled to come on the road next week in Baltimore.