Kikuchi strikes back in win

Three things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre on Thursday night:

The good Kikuchi

Jays lefty Yusei Kikuchi recorded a season-high eight strikeouts, and put to rest some of the concerns about his control.

The six-inning, four-hit outing came on the heels of four starts in which he managed just 14 ⁄ innings

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in total, while giving up 13 runs and 18 hits. That stretch taxed an already overworked bullpen and stirred talk that the club would skip Kikuchi’s start. But after a vote of confidence from general manager Ross Atkins on Wednesday, Kikuchi threw 80 pitches — 50 for strikes — and reached 400 career strikeouts when he whiffed Taylor Walls in the fifth.

“Our bullpen, it’s been used a lot, so it was big for (Kikuchi) to go six innings,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.

Kikuchi had his changeup and slider working effectively. He struck out four on the change, three with the slider and one with the fastball — which exceeded 96 m.p.h. in each inning. His first 10 pitches of the game were fastballs.

Glove love

Kikuchi could also thank third baseman Matt Chapman for some brilliant glove work in the sixth inning to end a Tampa Bay threat. With runners on first and second and none out, Chapman fielded a grounder down the line, stepped on third and fired to first for a double play.

An inning later, he ranged about 100 feet down the left-field line and made an over-the-shoulder catch for the third out.

“I don’t take those plays for granted,” Montoyo said. “He makes it look easy, but it’s not. He’s been a huge key for us since he got here.”

Blast, at last

The Jays’ Santiago Espinal put the game out of reach with a one-out, two-run homer off Ryan Yarbrough in the seventh inning. It was his sixth homer of the season, but first since June 6 (22 games). Teoscar Hernández also had a two-run blast.