{"id":580561,"date":"2026-04-03T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580561\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:51:08","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-alejandro-kirk-leaves-hurt-vs-chicago-white-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580561\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Alejandro Kirk leaves hurt vs. Chicago White Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO — When gritty Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk<\/a> takes himself out of the game, Toronto knows it\u2019s not good. After he did just that in the 10th inning on Friday, things for Toronto got immediately worse.<\/p>\n

Kirk was struck on the thumb of his glove (left) hand on a foul tip off the bat of Chicago\u2019s Austin Hays<\/a> when the ball bounced behind home plate and ricocheted with heavy spin, hitting his hand area. The Blue Jays training staff raced onto the field and Kirk walked off with them, holding the injured hand, after removing himself.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game that Kirk was undergoing X-rays and the extent of his injury and status going forward were up in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more thumb,\u201d Schneider, a former catcher himself, said. \u201cIt sucks. That hurts, especially on a cold day. So just hoping that it\u2019s nothing serious. He\u2019s about as tough as they come, so for him to come out, you don\u2019t love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s injury kicked off a dizzying turn of events that flipped the game. Toronto led 4-3 after scoring in the top of the 10th and there was one out in the bottom half of the inning with ghost runner Miguel Vargas<\/a> on third. Hays struck out against Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman<\/a> after Kirk was replaced by backup Tyler Heineman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Derek Hill<\/a>, who entered the game as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning, then bunted for a base hit on a soft offering up the line, a ball perfectly placed so that Heineman had to make a bang-bang play on it. Hill appeared to have Heineman\u2019s throw beaten out but the toss went wide of the bag and dribbled into right field, scoring Vargas with the tying run and sending Hill to second.<\/p>\n

Chicago manager Will Venable had encouraged Hill to bunt \u201cif they\u2019re playing back\u201d and the decision and the style of bunt Hill executed were both influenced by Toronto\u2019s unexpected change at catcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, (Venable) said, if they\u2019re playing back, and you got a new guy coming in, you never know,\u201d Hill said. \u201cPut the ball in play and good things happen. I just wanted to try and get it a little bit down the third base side.\u201d<\/p>\n

One pitch later, Chicago\u2019s Tristan Peters<\/a> stroked a single to right, plating Hill for the game-winner, making him the object of the White Sox\u2019s postgame jubilation. But in the clubhouse, the talk was about Kirk\u2019s injury and Hill\u2019s bunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough play for a catcher, especially coming in right there cold,\u201d Schneider said. \u201c(Heineman) was ready to go. We know Hill is a bunt threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Schneider, if Kirk, a two-time All-Star, has to miss time, he\u2019d likely be replaced on the roster by Brandon Valenzuela, a 25-year-old who started the season in Triple-A and is on Toronto\u2019s 40-man roster. Valenzuela has yet to make his big league debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO — When gritty Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk takes himself out of the game, Toronto knows it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[222303,49,48,82,75156],"class_list":{"0":"post-580561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alejandro-kirk-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-1071614","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}