Blue Jays Cy Young Winner Brings New Secret Weapon Into Brewers Matchup

A battle of the teams with the two best records in Major League Baseball is about to commence up north of the border.

The 83-52 Milwaukee Brewers will square off with the 78-56 Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game series at the Rogers Centre this weekend. And the fun begins right away, as Brewers ace Freddy Peralta matches up with Blue Jays trade deadline acquisition Shane Bieber on Friday night.

Bieber, the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) is making only his second start since undergoing Tommy John surgery last April. But he's a tough customer under any circumstances, and he's also bringing a new pitch into the matchup that no Brewers hitter has ever seen from him before.

Brewers will get first look at Bieber's kick-change

Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber makes a rehab start for the Akron RubberDucks, Tuesday, July 29, at Canal Park. | Lisa Scalfaro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Friday, The Athletic's Mitch Bannon chronicled Bieber's development of a kick-change, a variation of a change-up that's grown popular over the last season-plus, during his rehab efforts this summer. Based on the early results, the Brewers might have a problem on their hands.

“Even though I don’t throw my fastball super hard,” Bieber told Bannon. “All my secondary pitches are pretty firm. So I finally stopped fighting it.”

Bieber allowed one earned run in six innings against the Miami Marlins in his first start back last week, punching out nine batters. Three of them struck out on the change, which was his second-most used pitch with two strikes in the outing.

The Brewers only have five hitters with a major league at-bat of any kind against Bieber: Jake Bauers, Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn, and Danny Jansen. And none of them have seen the new pitch, which could prove problematic.

Maybe it's not such a big deal for one regular-season game if the Brewers aren't ready to adjust to a certain secondary offering. But if the top teams in the standings win out in October, Bieber just might be on the mound against Milwaukee in Game 1 of the World Series.

So whatever the outcome may be, the Brewers' hitters have to take diligent notes on all of Bieber's offerings on Friday.

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