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Instant Reaction: Blue Jays defeat Rangers 6-5 in Alejandro Kirk’s legacy game
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Photo credit: © John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Aug 15, 2025, 22:15 EDTUpdated: Aug 15, 2025, 22:52 EDT
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There’s one word to describe that game: Wow.
On Friday evening, the Toronto Blue Jays began a three-game series against the Texas Rangers, defeating their archrivals 6-5 in comeback fashion. With the Boston Red Sox’s 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins, the Blue Jays’ lead over the American League East remains at five games. Let’s take a look at what went on in this one!
Rangers’ starter Jacob deGrom was dominant and basically unhittable, so it was a bad thing when Kyle Higashioka hit a three-run home run in the top of the third for a 3-0 lead. Eventually, he was pulled from the game after the fifth inning, and the Blue Jays got on the board in the bottom of the seventh, as Alejandro Kirk hit a two-run home run to get within one.
Unfortunately, former Blue Jay Marcus Semien restored the Rangers’ three-run lead, as he hit a two-run home run off Louie Varland, with Varland and Mason Fluharty being tagged with a run each. That just set up an epic comeback in the bottom half of the eighth.
Andrés Giménez kicked off the bottom of the eighth with a single, followed by Davis Schneider’s pinch-hit single to put two on with no outs. Bo Bichette also hit a single, making it a two-run game. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepping up, the Rangers replaced Danny Coulombe with Phil Maton, but it didn’t stop the floodgates from opening.
Guerrero Jr. drew a walk to load the bases, but Addison Barger struck out for the first out of the inning. Daulton Varsho walked on five pitches to bring the Jays to within one, and up stepped Kirk, who hit a two-run single on a 1-2 count for the 6-5 lead. Jeff Hoffman did the rest in the top of the ninth.

Takeaways

This was one of the best games Alejandro Kirk has played in his career. He drove in four of the Blue Jays’ six runs, hitting a home run and a single in clutch situations. Not only that, but Kirk picked up his first stolen base of his career after his two-run single. Can’t get much better than that.
Although he struck out in a high-leverage situation, Addison Barger had a solid game, going 2-4. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the Blue Jays’ lone extra-base hit, a double. Davis Schneider, Bo Bichette, and Andrés Giménez all hit a single.
Early in the game, Nathan Lukes made two great plays. In the first inning, he was chasing a deep fly ball, jumping against the wall to make the catch, robbing what would have been two runs. In the next inning, he fired a dart to second base to get the hitter out at second base.
Jeff Hoffman had a good outing on Monday for the save, but he was dominant in the top of the ninth. He caught Josh Jung looking for out number one, induced two swings from Kyle Higashioka for out number two, and got two more swings out of Josh Smith to strikeout the side in order on just 11 pitches.
Making the start for the Blue Jays was Chris Bassitt, who struggled in the second inning but was good otherwise. In the end, he finished with three earned runs in five innings of work, striking out and walking four.
Braydon Fisher had a good bounce-back game, walking a batter in his inning of work. As did Yariel Rodríguez, as he struck out two in his inning. Mason Fluharty gave up one earned run, a strikeout, and a walk in two-thirds of an inning. Louie Varland allowed a home run and struck out a batter.
The Blue Jays look to extend their winning streak to three games, as Saturday’s game is at 3:07 PM ET with Eric Lauer making the start. George Springer may return to the lineup, making an already great Blue Jays lineup that much better.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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