Another lineup shuffle was another hit for the Blue Jays, who beat the Chicago White Sox 9-3 on a beautiful Victoria Day afternoon. Shifting Davis Schneider to leadoff has been beneficial and manager John Schneider gave Danny Jansen his first career start batting second. The catcher delivered, and then some.
Jansen homered, doubled, singled, drove in four and raised his average to .333. Shortstop Bo Bichette hit three doubles (he had six all season coming in) and went 4-4 to back a solid Jose Berrios, while Daulton Varsho homered to erase an early White Sox lead.
Chicago got on the board in the second inning with a couple of singles and a stolen base. It could have been a lot worse, since the ChiSox collected four singles in the inning but only plated one run. The frame ended in bizarre fashion, when Korey Lee was thrown out at the plate trying to steal home after Jansen tried to throw out a runner attempting to steal second.
Davis Schneider cut off the throw and fired it home to nail Lee. The Jays responded with a leadoff double by Bichette, followed by Varsho’s eighth home run of the season, a big hit considering Chicago starter Erick Fedde had nearly worked himself out of trouble by getting two outs. Toronto was at it again an inning later, when Kevin Kiermaier flashed his still elite speed by somehow turning a ground ball into a double.
The centre fielder then tagged up to get to third on a fly ball to left field and scored to make it 3-1 on Jansen’s two-base hit. Jan.
