Kevin Gausman keeps win within reach in Blue Jays debut vs. Rangers: I was fired up
Four short months ago, Kevin Gausman signed a five-year, $110 million contract to pitch for the Blue Jays.
It was the most expensive free-agent deal Toronto’s front office handed out this offseason. So, while “Money” by Pink Floyd has been his warm-up music for a while now, it did feel especially apt on Saturday that Gausman prepared for his start to the tune.
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Then, in his Blue Jays debut, Gausman provided a glimpse of why Toronto decided to pay him a lot of money to help lead its rotation. Over five innings, the right-hander allowed three runs on eight hits with five strikeouts against the Texas Rangers in a game the Blue Jays won 4-3 to stay perfect so far on the opening weekend.
Gausman cruised for most of his start, working around a couple of singles in the first inning. The main trouble spot came in the third, however, when he gave up a series of hard-hit balls on a few mislocated pitches, allowing the Rangers to put up three runs and take a 3-2 lead over the Blue Jays.
But the 31-year-old showed his veteran poise, bouncing back for a smooth fourth and fifth inning, facing the minimum in each and keeping the game well within reach for the Blue Jays’ high-powered offence to come through for Toronto’s second comeback win in as many days. This time, it was a Bo Bichette home run in the fifth that tied it, then, again, a Santiago Espinal RBI double in the sixth that put the Blue Jays ahead for good.
Gausman said he adjusted after the third inning and tried to be “a little bit more fine” with his fastball, saying he knew he’d rather miss it up in the zone rather than down and have to pay for it.
“That’s a big pitch for me and it just gives me more margin for my split,” he said. “I don’t have to throw every split ball-to-strike as much and so you can see the fourth and fifth, the type of swings that I was getting, more groundballs, a little bit weaker contact, definitely made an adjustment after the third.”
The fact that Gausman was able to get through five innings was huge for the team, too, especially after Friday’s starter José Berríos didn’t make it out of the first inning and the team used seven relievers to get through the game.
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“What he did was huge going through the fifth inning, because our bullpen, even though we got plenty of guys, that was huge for him to do that and I think that was key for us winning this game. Gausman going to the fifth,” manager Charlie Montoyo said.
As expected, Gausman’s best weapon was his unique splitter, which generated 11 swinging strikes against the Rangers. Appropriately, his first strikeout in a Blue Jays uniform came on one of those nasty splitters that fooled Marcus Semien in the first inning. As effective as the split was at times on Saturday, though, Gausman suggested it can be even better.
“Split usually always feels pretty good,” he said. “There was a couple I left up in the zone a little bit.”
Gausman also got a bit unlucky with some of the Blue Jays’ defensive alignments. In the first inning, for example, with Corey Seager at the plate, the Blue Jays moved second baseman Cavan Biggio to right field for a four-man outfield. But the Rangers shortstop hit a groundball single through the hole on the right side of the infield. That said, Biggio also made a great grab in that same inning while he was shading to the left of the second base bag.
“I think we need to kind of maybe re-evaluate some of the shifts that we had on guys because we base all of our shifts on what guys did last year, but guys get better in the offseason and make adjustments and so it’ll be interesting to see that the next time we play these guys what defensive strategy we have,” Gausman said.
All in all, it was still an overall good first outing for Gausman and did a lot to reinforce why the Blue Jays had long sought after him. Coming off two strong seasons with the San Francisco Giants — where he pitched to a 3.00 ERA and blossomed into the top-of-the-rotation arm many believed he could be when he was a first-round draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles in 2012 — the return to the American League East should have been familiar territory for Gausman.
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Instead, he said it actually felt a little strange.
“It was weird. I felt like I’d never pitched here before, which I’ve pitched here a lot,” said Gausman, who has previously appeared in 12 games at the Rogers Centre. “And so, it was a little weird. A lot of firsts to get out of the way, I felt like it was really bright out there for whatever reason. It was fun, though. The atmosphere was electric and after warming up, I was fired up, I was ready to go.”
Though it might have taken a minute for Gausman to re-adjust to pitching in the Rogers Centre again, his family has felt immediately embraced by their new city.
Having spent a lot of time here while with the Orioles, Gausman said he’s a fan of the city’s restaurant scene. He said he considers Jacob and Co. Steakhouse the best steakhouse on either side of the border. And after he signed in Toronto last November, he and his wife, Taylor, wanted to get their two young daughters prepared for living in Canada, so they played them “O Canada.” Naturally, the national anthem quickly became his daughter Sadie’s favourite song. His 3-year-old’s other new favourite tune is “OK Blue Jays.” So, she’ll fit in just fine here. And after one start, it looks as though Gausman will, as well.
“I went to lunch two days ago with my wife,” Gausman said. “And I think I took like three steps out of the parking garage and some guy was like, ‘Welcome to Toronto!’”
(Photo: Cole Burston / Getty Images)
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