Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios has more than pitching on his mind these days

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PHILADELPHIA — Jose Berrios has more than just his next start to worry about these days.

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The native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, and Blue Jays starter has plenty of family back home that are dealing with severe flooding brought about by Hurricane Fiona which made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday.

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Most of Berrios’ family remains in Puerto Rico, although his mom was with his wife in Florida and avoided the downpour that has left the island without power and many of its streets underwater for the most part.

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Berrios said while Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island back in 2017, was a Category 5 hurricane, Fiona was measured as a Category 1 but brought enough rain that homes are literally floating away.

In terms of rainfall, Fiona actually surpassed Maria.

Berrios has checked on all his family and all are were unhurt by the storm but there remains a ton of work to do.

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KIRK IS BACK

The Alejandro Kirk absence from the lineup lasted a week after he aggravated his left hip scoring from first base last week.

Kirk was back in the lineup Tuesday night in Philadelphia as the designated hitter. Manager John Schneider said as long as there were no setbacks Tuesday, he expected to have Kirk back behind the plate on Wednesday.

Schneider said the team probably erred on the side of caution keeping Kirk out as long as they did knowing they had Danny Jansen to turn things over to until Kirk could return.

Schneider was asked if Kirk has been asked to tone it down a little on the basepaths in light of the injury.

“Kirk has kind of told to take it easy,” Schneider said, taking exception to the use of the word “asked.”

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“Scoring from first may be out of the question unless something really crazy happens and he will not have the green light to steal second,” Schneider said tongue firmly in cheek. “Other than that, he should be good to go.”

BIT LONGER FOR GURRIEL

Jays fans will have to wait a little longer for the return of every-day left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Gurriel, who qualified to come off the injured list Sunday, headed for Dunedin to get in some rehab work before he rejoins the team in St Petersburg in the series that begins Thursday.

ABOUT THAT NEXT OPEN START

At some point later this week, the Jays are going to have another spot start for someone in particular or the bullpen in general.

That start will either come Thursday, Friday or Saturday in Florida as the Jays take on the Tampa Bay Rays.

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Having enjoyed an off-day Monday, the Jays can pitch their four starters in succession and fill the spot start on Saturday or use it as early as Thursday with Kevin Gausman’s start Wednesday the only probable the team is even listing.

Mitch White, who had been filling in for some of those spot starts since Yusei Kikuchi was removed from the starting five, is back after a start in triple-A Buffalo on Sunday.

The numbers weren’t pretty for White as he gave up eight runs over five innings in an eventual 9-8 loss to Syracuse, but Schneider said the Jays might not have helped his chances.

“His last outing in the double-header (against Tampa) was a step in the right direction,” Schneider began. “I know Sunday didn’t go great for him in Buffalo.

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But I think just execution with him. The stuff is there.

“The biggest focus we had with him going down for that start (Sunday) was getting ahead of hitters and I think it kind of backfired on him with an aggressive team in his face. But it’s getting ahead and then executing with two strikes.

“If he can do that — and again we are not asking him to go seven or eight innings, just keep us in the game and make pitches when he has to and not let anything blow up — he should be fine.”

But whether that start winds up going to White remains up in the air. It could still be a bullpen start depending on how long the starters go over the next few days and how good the relievers are feeling having already logged three starts on top of their regular workload over the past couple of weeks.

“We’ll see,” Schneider said. “A lot depends on usage and how deep our starters go in the next couple of days.

“And a lot depends on how the guys in the bullpen are feeling. It’s September 20th and you got to be aware of that too for guys you are going to be counting on down the stretch.

Either way, Schneider has options and he’s not complaining.

“It’s a good problem to have,” he said.