TORONTO -- The wait to see a smooth, settled and consistent Yusei Kikuchi will stretch into May. 

There was a flicker of this 10 days ago in Boston, when Kikuchi battled through the Red Sox lineup on a chilly day at Fenway Park, but his other starts this season have shown a pitcher who is still a “work in progress,” as manager Charlie Montoyo put it earlier in April. 

That’s fair. Kikuchi is coming into a new team, new staff and new division after a year where he thrived early and struggled late. In the bigger picture of Kikuchi’s career and the zoomed-in lens of his performance from start to start, there are plenty of moving parts. Now, after Friday’s 11-7 loss to the Astros, Kikuchi and the Blue Jays will continue to search for a sweet spot.

“Command,” said Montoyo, a simple answer to a clear problem. “Command. It’s also kind of tough, because he’s facing the same team in back-to-back starts that he already faced six times last year. His command is not [good] right now.” 

Let’s use the Robbie Ray comparison. Ray and Kikuchi are built differently, pitch differently and attack hitters differently, but any left-hander who comes to Toronto with “upside” for the next decade will be held up against Ray in a quest to unlock something.

What Ray did so well in Toronto was identify his strengths and lean into them. For him, this meant fastballs and sliders paired with the confidence that -- even when hitters knew exactly what was coming -- his best was better than the opponent’s best. Prior to Friday’s loss, Montoyo suggested that Ray’s type of approach could benefit Kikuchi.

That might mean fewer cutters, but Kikuchi is already doing that. His cutter usage has sat just below 25 percent in 2022, down from 35 percent and 40 percent in the two seasons prior. On Friday, Kikuchi scrapped the pitch all together, instead using a harder slider in tandem with his traditional slider. This was a decision he made with pitching coach Pete Walker, and along with a smoother leg kick in his delivery, he liked the feel despite the results.

Regardless of whether Kikuchi is throwing fastballs, sliders or underhand, the answer starts with throwing strikes. There will always be upside in a lefty who can touch 97 mph, but Kikuchi has walked 13 batters over 14 2/3 innings this season. The Ray comparison, then, needs to be more about approach than precise pitches. Kikuchi has nibbled around the zone at times, but his raw stuff is good enough to challenge quality hitters within the zone.

“As of late, I feel like I haven’t been able to get ahead in 0-0 counts,” Kikuchi said through a club interpreter. “Especially when runners get on. It’s about getting back in a good rhythm, even when there aren’t any runners on. [I need] to work ahead and stay ahead. That’s going to be huge for me going forward.”

The good news? It’s early. Kikuchi has plenty of time to figure this out after signing a three-year, $36 million contract, but as the Blue Jays learned in 2021 when they fell just a game short of the postseason, every game matters when they tally it all up at the end.

Friday’s game had plenty of other ingredients worthy of a win. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his first home run in two weeks, just a day after missing a game due to a swollen foot after fouling a ball off it. Matt Chapman got in on the action, too, launching a massive home run off the facing of the 500 Level in left field, a rare territory that’s not even touched for seasons at a time. Even Raimel Tapia went 4-for-5, bumping his average from .210 to .254.

This put the bullpen in a difficult spot, too. Prior to the game, the Blue Jays optioned young starter Bowden Francis back to Triple-A, confident with a fresh group of relievers, but 6 1/3 innings, some of it straining, quickly flips that again. In the midst of 20 games in 20 days, that matters, even with the calendar still reading April.

Kikuchi has felt good about all of the changes he’s made to date, but even if you’re Jacob deGrom, making noticeable adjustments in the middle of an MLB season while professional hitters are heating up is not easy. Not everyone will be the overnight success of, well, Ray. 

There are plenty of moving parts at play here for Kikuchi, and as the calendar flips to May, he’ll need some of those to start falling together into a choreography.