"I pitched my ass off": Berrios explains his side of Blue Jays' season-ending loss

The Toronto Blue Jays ended their 2023 season with a crushing defeat that was all too common this year.

Facing elimination after dropping the opening game of the American League Wild Card Series, Toronto suffered a 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday that saw them have their postseason end without the chance to even play in front of their home fans.

But while one of the major storylines of the day was the team’s inability to score more than one run over the course of the two-game series, Blue Jays manager John Schneider was widely questioned for his decision to pull starting pitcher Jose Berrios after just 47 pitches with the game tied 0-0 in the fourth inning, as he’d had five strikeouts while giving up just three hits and a walk.

The move was intended to put starter-turned-reliever Yusei Kikuchi into the game and get Berrios away from a heavy left-handed lineup, which had historically been an issue for Berrios this season, with a .220 opponent batting average from righties compared to .262 from lefties. It likely wasn’t a move made solely by Schneider, but rather a strategy discussed with the rest of the organization’s analytics and coaching staff pregame.

The decision to put in Kikuchi quickly backfired, though, with Toronto down 2-0 just four batters later in what ultimately was the only runs of the ball game. Though Toronto ended up getting shutout, the decision was one of the major talking points postgame.

“When you don’t win, I understand the reactions and opinions that are out there,” Schneider said to reporters postgame of the decision to pull Berrios. “We had a few different plans in place, Jose was aware of it, he had electric stuff. Tough to take him out. With they way they’re constructed, you want to utilize your whole roster, and it didn’t work out… you can sit here and second guess me, second guess the organization, second guess anybody. I get that. It’s tough, and it didn’t work out for us today or yesterday.”

As for Berrios himself, he didn’t push back against getting pulled.

“I know we are in an elimination game… I understand the move. I have to deal with that,” Berrios said.

But asked again if he was told the reasoning behind exactly why he was pulled in the middle of a strong performance, the assurance wasn’t quite there.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I just control what I can control… I did my best, first 12 batters. It is what it is,” Berrios said.

Wednesday was Berrios’ first appearance on the mound in the postseason as a Blue Jay, after being acquired from the Twins just prior to the 2021 trade deadline.

“I pitched my ass off from first pitch to 47, so… other than that, you have to feel good about it. But like I said, life [goes on],” Berrios added.

Blue Jays infielder Whit Merrifield was a little more pointed with his criticism.

“I hated it, frankly,” he said, as per SI.com’s Mitch Bannon. “It’s not what cost us the game, but it’s the kind of baseball decisions that are taking away from managers and baseball, at this stage of the game.”

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