Does history matter in baseball? Yes and no. There are tendencies, sure, but pitcher-hitter matchups are stories from different teams, different seasons—heck, even different people, given that stuff and swings change from one year to another. The Baltimore Orioles had saddled Toronto’s Chris Bassitt with an 8.55 ERA in the past. Turns out, sometimes old stats are worth no more than a hill of beans.
On Sunday, the Blue Jays and the Orioles each sent a command pitcher to the mound, Toronto the righty Bassitt and Baltimore its new Japanese import Tomoyuki Sugano. In the end, it was Bassitt who got the better of the matchup, giving his team six strong innings on 106 pitches, surrendering just one run.