{"id":168987,"date":"2025-08-23T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168987\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:07:12","slug":"biebers-dominant-blue-jays-debut-offers-glimpse-of-whats-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168987\/","title":{"rendered":"Bieber’s dominant Blue Jays debut offers glimpse of what’s to come"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 A few hours before first pitch Friday, Shane Bieber<\/a> sat alone in the visiting dugout at loanDepot Park, eyes on the field where he\u2019d soon make his first big-league start in more than 16 months. By the late evening, Bieber\u2019s new teammates were shaking his hand and slapping him on the back as he made his way through that same dugout after his first six innings in a Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> uniform.<\/p>\n

In between: dominance. Bieber\u2019s command was pinpoint Friday, and he used it to get ahead in the count consistently against the Marlins\u2019 lineup. His stuff was great too, with a fastball that sat 92.7 m.p.h. and perfectly located change-ups that induced off-balance swing after off-balance swing from the Marlins, who managed just two hits against Bieber while striking out nine times.<\/p>\n

Best of all for the Blue Jays, Bieber\u2019s debut led to another win as they beat Miami 5-2 to improve to 75-54 on the season while getting an enticing glimpse at what their newest starter may be able to offer down the stretch and into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll day, I just felt a lot of gratitude,\u201d Bieber said, \u201cfor what\u2019s been a long road for my family and my support system. It\u2019s just awesome to share this moment with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s back to doing what I love to do,\u201d he continued. \u201cI fell right into rhythm and I was happy to hit the ground running.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the dugout once Bieber completed his outing, manager John Schneider embraced him, congratulated him and told him to enjoy the moment. Later, the manager was in great spirits thanks to his newest starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got Bieber Fever,\u201d Schneider quipped. \u201cI\u2019m a Belieber.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s hamstring hadn\u2019t progressed quite enough for him to return to the starting lineup, he ran on the field pre-game and took batting practice \u2014 positive signs considering how much Guerrero Jr. means to the team\u2019s offence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be soon, but we\u2019ve got take it day by day,\u201d he told Sportsnet.<\/p>\n

With Guerrero Jr. still on the sidelines, the focus Friday was on Bieber, acquired at the trade deadline from the Guardians for pitching prospect Khal Stephen, a promising right-hander who’s now on the double-A injured list. At the time, Bieber was still rehabbing, and with that came some uncertainty, but after three starts with triple-A Buffalo, he was ready for the next challenge.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s one thing to be physically ready for the major-leagues. Alongside the physical preparation there\u2019s also the mental challenge of performing at the highest level alongside a completely new team. Going into the start, Schneider stressed the significance of that task, but once the game began, Bieber was in full control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt very familiar,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I love to do is go out, compete and pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, falling into a rhythm is a big part of pitching,\u201d Bieber continued. \u201cI was able to do that pretty early with my fastball, then the second time through the order the spin picked up and (catcher Alejandro Kirk) and I fell in sync, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the field, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough described how hard it is for many pitchers to rediscover their command after reconstructive elbow surgery. Having welcomed right-handers Eury Perez and Sandy Alcantara back from similar operations this year, the Marlins know better than most that it can take time to control the baseball as both pitchers have had periods of inconsistency.<\/p>\n

Yet somehow Bieber was at his best Friday, commanding the ball with precision and throwing few if any non-competitive pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m done with my rehab,” Bieber said. “I\u2019m here to compete\u201d<\/p>\n

At some point, there may well be adjustments for Bieber to make, or starts where his command lapses. That\u2019s to be expected from every pitcher, especially those coming back from major surgery.<\/p>\n

But on Friday, there were no such concerns in sight. This was simply a Cy Young Award winner pitching like a Cy Young Award winner \u2014 an accomplishment worth celebrating after more than a year of hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for Shane,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long road to get back here and to go out and pitch the way he did \u2014 no walks, nine strikeouts, a couple hits, efficient, great tempo, change-up was ridiculous, slider was great, spotted his fastball. It\u2019s everything you look for from a guy who\u2019s won a Cy Young, and he made it look way easier than it is for most people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at a really good starting pitcher get back to doing what he\u2019s great at, that\u2019s the highlight of your day,\u201d the manager added.<\/p>\n

Of course once this milestone has been celebrated, it’ll be impossible not to look ahead a little. With the playoffs approaching and Bieber looking like a frontline arm again the question becomes how much performances like this could improve the Blue Jays’ chances in October.<\/p>\n

“I joined this team at its peak,” Bieber said, “And we continue to climb higher.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A few hours before first pitch Friday, Shane Bieber sat alone in the visiting dugout at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-168987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115077765128719973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}