Mitch White makes Rogers Centre debut in Blue Jays win

TORONTO — After Mitch White walked the first batter he faced Saturday on four straight balls, he proceeded to throw ball five, ball six and ball seven.

By the time he found the strike zone with his eighth pitch of the game, the Rogers Centre crowd rewarded him with a sarcastic cheer, ready to watch another early disappointment on the heels of Friday’s 8-0 clunker. Instead of sinking, though, White found a way to keep his team above water.

Toronto’s 2-1 win was unspectacular in a way, with solo home runs from Matt Chapman and Teoscar Hernández carrying an offense that was otherwise sparse. They all count the same, though, and while White’s 4 2/3 innings on 82 pitches won’t be remembered as the performance of the season either, he held the line in his home debut, putting the Blue Jays in position to pull it off.

That sounds simple — something that should be viewed as the bare minimum — but it’s not something that can be said for some recent Toronto starts, particularly from José Berríos or Yusei Kikuchi. It’s exactly what the Blue Jays need, too, given their offensive talent and this lineup’s ability to break most games open at any moment.

“He was pretty cool and collected through the outing, and he got better as he went on,” said manager John Schneider. “Overall, a really, really good job by him. He had a couple strikeouts that were big, one against [José] Ramírez, and I thought he did a great job.”

That Ramírez punchout was White’s best pitch of the night, a curveball that snapped down, forcing the Guardians star to swing well over it for strike three. On the average night, though, White’s game won’t have as many peaks and valleys.

“For me, it’s just about being good in the zone, commanding the ball in the zone and inducing weak contact,” White said. “It just means spinning the ball well, but keep it around and let them get themselves out instead of grinding out long at-bats and wasting pitches.”

This entire pitching picture gets more interesting with the return of Ross Stripling, who isn’t expected to need another rehab start after throwing five scoreless innings in Triple-A on Friday. Berríos will be given a million more opportunities to find himself, but Kikuchi has failed to string together starts and inspire confidence.

Anything is on the table, including keeping White in the rotation semi-permanently or in spot starts as a sixth man, but his ability to pitch in a bulk role out of the bullpen is also appealing. However it shakes out, though, White’s presence gives the Blue Jays six legitimate starting options, which is extremely important at this point in the season because option No. 7 isn’t clear at all.

White’s outing also let the bullpen do its thing, and while this group didn’t add a headlining name at the Trade Deadline, the additions of Zach Pop and Anthony Bass made a talented group deeper. The ‘pen shut it down for 4 1/3 innings, including a four-out save from Jordan Romano.

“Ideally, we’d have a seven-run lead,” Schneider said with a smile, “but you can’t say enough about the job they did from Pop to Cimber, Bass, Garcia and Romano. They all stepped up. These last two games, I think it’s nine scoreless [innings]. They’ve been really, really good for a while now. It lined up well after Mitch, but it’s just a credit to those guys. They were all pretty much nails.”

That performance, on the back of that of White, allowed Chapman’s 23rd home run of the season and Hernandez’s 17th to be enough. It won’t be enough most nights, but this lineup has far more firepower than it’s shown in this series, with two runs over two games.

“You have to grind out your at-bats. It sounds easy to say,” Schneider said, “but we have the ability to change the leverage of a game with one swing. It’s going to take more than that, though. It’s going to take consistent at-bats and getting on base. When that big blow comes, it’s even better with guys on.”

Moving to 61-51 keeps the Blue Jays in a good spot, currently tied with Seattle for the top Wild Card seed, but the Orioles, Twins, Rays and White Sox are all close on their heels. There won’t be anything comfortable about the next seven weeks, and while White isn’t the biggest name on this roster, performances like this one from the rotation will let the stars shine down the stretch.