Yusei Kikuchi continued his impressive start to the season season for the Toronto Blue Jays by striking out eight over 5⅔ innings of four-hit baseball in an 8-0 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old southpaw racked up his fourth straight win after combining with three relievers on the shutout, helping Toronto sweep the three-game series against the visiting White Sox.
Kikuchi (4-0) threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes and issued just one walk. All four hits he allowed were singles.
"I was able to get ahead in the count and vary my pitches depending on the batter," Kikuchi said.
After a nightmare 2022 season in which he struggled to put together quality starts and fell out of the Blue Jays' rotation, Kikuchi has been rejuvenated this year. In five starts, he has allowed more than one earned run just once.
"I'm going onto the mound with confidence and enjoying taking on hitters," Kikuchi said.
At New York's Citi Field, Kodai Senga was tagged with the first loss of his MLB career as the New York Mets went down 4-1 to the Washington Nationals. Senga (3-1) gave up two earned runs on five hits and four walks while striking out seven over five innings.
Shohei Ohtani launched a two-run bomb in the eighth inning of the Los Angeles Angels' 11-3 win over the Oakland Athletics, taking his home run tally to six this season. Ohtani went 2-for-5 with three RBIs, including a single off countryman Shintaro Fujinami, who made his first relief appearance for the A's.
Masataka Yoshida hit his fourth home run for the Boston Red Sox, blasting a solo shot in a 6-2 loss at the Baltimore Orioles.