Yusei Kikuchi expects to make next start, blames cramps on getting “only 11 hours of sleep”

The Yusei Kikuchi Revenge Tour hit a little bit of a speedbump on Tuesday as the lefty was pulled from his start against the New York Yankees with a left upper trap muscle cramp.

He allowed a run in the first inning but settled down and only allowed a couple of singles between the second and fifth innings. Kikuchi started off the sixth inning by issuing a walk to DJ LeMahieu and appeared to be in discomfort after. He was pulled from the game and left the bench with the team’s trainer.

Yimi Garcia had been warming up and came into the game and cleared through the sixth inning. After that, Trevor Richards, Jordan Hicks, and Nate Pearson closed the door and the Blue Jays cruised to a 7-1 victory to open up their three-game series in New York.

All told, Kikuchi went five innings and threw 82 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. He allowed one earned run on four hits and one walk while striking out seven and saw his ERA on the season decrease to 3.74.

After the game, Kikuchi said that he thinks he’ll be fine to make his next start. He also told Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic that he thinks not getting enough sleep ahead of Tuesday’s game might have been the cause of the cramps. Kikuchi said that he only got 11 hours of sleep on Monday night, less than the usual 13 or 14 hours that he gets during the season.

Kevin Gausman and José Berríos are scheduled to start the next two games of this series with the Yankees and then Chris Bassitt and Hyun Jin Ryu are in line to start the first two games of Toronto’s weekend series at The Trop with the Rays. Kikuchi’s next scheduled start would be on Sunday in Tampa.

The Blue Jays losing one of their five starting pitchers to injury right now wouldn’t be ideal as there isn’t a clear sixth starter on the roster. Alek Manoah was supposed to fill that role in Triple-A Buffalo but his season has come to a premature end. Mitch White has pitched well for the Bisons lately and could potentially be added back to the 40-man roster if the Blue Jays are desperate for an arm who can log some innings.