With Blue Jays needing pick-me-up, Gausman delivers to split series vs. Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays have done this build-up-a-starter-on-the-fly thing successfully before, Robbie Ray in 2021 at the start of his Cy Young season serving as a prime example. So, unusual as it may be, Kevin Gausman isn’t necessarily breaking new ground by jumping into the regular season with just one start at the end of a spring truncated by shoulder fatigue under his belt.

Regardless, Gausman looked every bit his dominant ace self Sunday in a 9-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays that split the season-opening series, with only a lack of preparatory reps preventing him from going deeper than 4.1 innings.

He allowed just two hits, one of them a solo shot by Randy Arozarena, and struck out six, riding a fastball that sat 94.3 m.p.h. and topped out at 97.6, and a splitter that sat 85.6. He threw 69 pitches and got 12 whiffs on 35 swings, overpowering the Rays start to finish.

For a Blue Jays team needing a pick-me-up after dropping two straight at the circus tent that is Tropicana Field after an 8-2 Opening Day victory, scratched Bo Bichette due to neck spasms and in the morning appealed the three-game suspension handed to Genesis Cabrera for his Saturday altercation with Rays shortstop Jose Caballero, Gausman really delivered.

“I was pretty fired up before the game,” said Gausman. “To only have one spring training game and thrown into a big game for us, obviously, needing to win today to split the series, I was pretty jacked up. Got through the first alright and kind of settled down.”

Just as critical was a big day at the plate after two quiet ones, Justin Turner leading the charge with an RBI single in the first that opened the scoring, a two-run double in the second that made it 4-1, an add-on solo shot in the fifth and a walk and run scored in the seventh to further pad out the score. 

Alejandro Kirk added an RBI single in the first that made it 2-0, Davis Schneider added a two-run shot in the fifth and Cavan Biggio an RBI single in the seventh on a collective offence type of afternoon. The Blue Jays jumped opener Shawn Armstrong for two runs and then opened things up against bulk-arm Tyler Alexander, getting three key hits with runners in scoring position before the home runs pushed the game out of reach.

“It's not trying to do too much and understanding that the pressure is on the pitcher and he's got to make good pitches,” Turner said of hitting with men on before he was interrupted by special assistant Victor Martinez, who shouted, “RBI Machine right there,” as he was walking by. 

“It always helps having Vic telling me I'm an RBI Machine,” Turner continued with a grin. “Confidence going up to the plate is always a nice plus.” 

The padding allowed the Blue Jays to cover the 4.2 innings Gausman left for the bullpen in low leverage, especially handy with Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson still on the injured list.

Nate Pearson recorded two outs to close out the fifth before Mitch White got the top of the Rays lineup in the sixth, rolling through three frames while only allowing a walk. Chad Green handled the ninth, giving every Blue Jays reliever at least one outing in the series.

Nursing a smaller lead home would have been tighter as the injury to their best back-end arms has several pitchers out of role.

“We miss those guys,” said pitching coach Pete Walker. “Just going through how we're using guys during the course of the game out of the bullpen, it's a little bit different without those two guys down there. We're kind of working through that right now.”

That’s one reason why the Cabrera suspension is ill-timed. While the Blue Jays feel three games was harsh given the scope of the incident, they need him this week when they face four of the best left-handed hitters in the sport – Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker in Houston, Juan Soto and Anthony Rizzo in New York.

There’s no definitive timeline for either Romano or Swanson yet, but Gausman’s return was an auspicious one. He’ll likely be in the neighbourhood of 85-90 pitches in his next start Saturday at the Yankees and close to full-go from there.

Pitch count aside, Gausman feels the only thing he’s really missed from a normal spring training is “probably reps with the clock,” since “there were a couple times that the clock kind of sped me up.”

“When you're not used to that, having less time than we've been used to, there were a couple of times where I look up and there's two seconds and I have got to go,” he continued. “I probably would have fine-tuned those things, maybe learned to not really move on the mound, just kind of stay there and catch the ball and get in my delivery. The sooner you can get the ball and come set, the more time you have to mess with the runners and mess with timing. When you don't do that, you're going to get into doing the same thing, releasing the ball with three seconds every time and you get kind of predictable.”

There’s time for that and the Blue Jays will gladly take the upside, both in terms of workload and performance. Manager John Schneider praised his ace for being “great, about as efficient and effective as we could have hoped for,” something that wasn’t a given under the circumstances, but Gausman is someone used to exceeding expectations.