Bassitt praises Blue Jays' recent play: 'Really proud of this team'

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Chris Bassitt praised his teammates following Tuesday's 10-9 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I'm just really proud of this team," Bassitt said, according to MLB.com's Keegan Matheson.

"From the second we showed up to spring training, even the offseason, I feel like we're really fighting for each other, really working together. It's hard to beat us when we're doing that. One through nine is doing their job, if not way more, but we're playing a very unselfish brand of baseball."

Toronto won for the 10th time in its last 12 contests and improved to a season-high seven games over .500.

Bassitt allowed four earned runs over seven innings pitched. The offense racked up 16 hits behind him, the biggest of which was a three-run home run off Andres Giménez's bat in the first inning.

The right-hander believes the lessons learned from last year's struggles have paved the way for the Blue Jays to play better baseball.

"Sometimes you've gotta go through some (crap) to basically get exposed and then fix issues," Bassitt said, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. "Last year, I definitely never want to go through it again, but it exposed a lot of things and tested a lot of people."

An improved offense has powered Toronto's turnaround after finishing last in the American League East in 2024. The Blue Jays lead the AL in runs scored (187) and rank second in wRC+ (122) since May 1st.

Toronto has gone 23-14 during that time frame despite injuries to Anthony Santander, Daulton Varsho, Yimi García, and Max Scherzer.

"Hopefully we get back to full strength and it gets that much better, but the way they're going about it right now is professional and pretty f-----g awesome," manager John Schneider said, per Matheson.

The Blue Jays will look to complete a three-game sweep of the Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon.