OAKLAND, Calif. – Spencer Horwitz’s first start of the season didn’t exactly send the Toronto Blue Jays’ batting order into the blender, although putting him in the two-hole did lead to a number of corresponding changes.
Danny Jansen slid down to fifth, behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, followed by Daniel Vogelbach, subbing in for Justin Turner. With George Springer also off for a day-game-after-night, Daulton Varsho slid over to right field for the first time since Sept 25, 2022, and batted seventh.
The intent with Horwitz’s placement in a new mix?
“It allows a lot of different things,” explained manager John Schneider. “Keeping Vlad and Bo kind of where they are at three and four, want to do that. Getting his kind of at-bat in the middle there after (Davis Schneider). And then it allows us to be a little bit versatile as the game goes on with guys on the bench. You don’t want to say you’re going to hit exactly like you did at triple-A in the big leagues, but he’s in a really good spot right now. So when you’re calling guys up who are rolling, you want to try to take advantage of it and it gets Jano down there to hopefully drive in some runs, too.”
Checkmarks across the board, as the Blue Jays ended a near historic streak of first innings without scoring at 29 games when Horwitz came home on Jansen’s sacrifice fly, before a five-run fifth made for a rare blowout in a Saturday’s 7-0 thumping of the Oakland Athletics.
The outburst came behind Kevin Gausman’s first career nine-inning complete game and ensured his masterful shutout wasn’t wasted the way Chris Bassitt’s eight innings of one-run ball Friday night was, while also idling the relievers ahead of Sunday’s bullpen game that Bowden Francis will start.
“I wanted it,” Gausman said of going back out for the ninth at 97 pitches. “I thought if we kept scoring runs (in the top of the ninth), I was probably going to be done. So I didn’t really know, but Schneids asked me and I wanted it. It’s the second time I’ve pitched nine shutty here (also May 5, 2018, in a 2-0, 12-inning Baltimore loss), but it was nice to get the CG this time and get the win. And it’s always good to give the bullpen a day off.”
The 33-year-old allowed just five hits and a walk while striking out 10, needing just 109 pitches to go the distance. He recorded a five-inning complete game against the Yankees in a rain-shortened affair on July 13, 2014, while Bassitt threw the previous nine-inning complete game for the Blue Jays last May 12 against Atlanta.
Heading into Saturday, there’d been only 11 complete games in the majors this season, including five-inning efforts from Jose Berrios and Cole Ragans in Kansas City’s 2-1 win over Toronto in a rain-shortened game on April 25.
“You need a lot of things to line up perfectly,” said Gausman. “You need a low pitch count. You also need to be winning, usually winning by a good margin, so that they’ll let you keep going. But also, if guys haven’t pitched in a while, if Timmy (Mayza, for instance) needed to pitch today, that would be a little different. But our bullpen obviously has been pitching a lot. But you don’t see many of them anymore and so to get the first one in my career 12 years later makes it that much more special, I think.”
While Nate Pearson was warming in the ninth just in case, Gausman made everything easy on Schneider, who described the approach to the finale as “still in the planning phase” before the game. He was aiming to avoid using at least one of Trevor Richards and Francis and didn’t need either.
A deliberate approach against Luis Medina, the Athletics starter with the erratic command, also helped underwrite Gausman’s work, even if it took the Blue Jays a while to open things up.
During their pre-game meetings, the club stressed forcing the right-hander to the middle of the zone and their discipline paid off in the first, when Horwitz, Guerrero and Bichette earned walks before Jansen sent a fastball just off the inner edge of the plate to the track in left to break the first-inning drought.
At 29 games, their streak is the second longest such run in the majors, trailing only the 1937 Boston Bees.
“I came in the dugout and everybody’s saying, get the ball, and I did not even know what was going on, I don’t know what the record was,” said Jansen. “I heard a bunch of people say get the ball. I figured it out after that.”
Added Gausman: “I didn’t know anything about it until George was asking for the ball and wanted to get it authenticated. … I’m happy that that streak is over, for sure.”
But their breakthrough didn’t come until the fifth, when Kevin Kiermaier led off the inning by hammering a middle-up fastball over the wall in left to double the advantage, consecutive doubles by Guerrero, Bichette and Jansen made it 4-0, an Isiah Kiner Falefa single brought home another run and Vogelbach capped the rally by scoring on a passed ball.
Such high-damage innings have been a rarity for the Blue Jays this season.
Gausman, meanwhile, turned the page on a rough outing against the Baltimore Orioles earlier this week, when he gave up three homers and six runs on six hits in 6.1 innings, making an adjustment on his splitter and coming up with the best version of it.
The Athletics swung at the pitch 25 times, missing it 14, fouling it off six times, singling twice, flying out twice and grounding out once.
“Really just trying to not get ahead of myself, staying behind the ball and for me that means shifting my leg kick from kicking out (front) to kicking it more towards third,” said Gausman. “That allows me to stay behind the ball and causes my split to carry the zone a little bit better than it has been this year and I could see that early on.”
The complete-game shutout was also a first for Jansen behind the plate, who helped Gausman mix in his sinker, as well, using it to get five foul balls and two groundouts on seven swings.
“I told Gauzie, ‘You and me, we’re connected forever now,’ so, it’s really cool,” said Jansen. “He deserves it. … It’s a lot of fun to do that. “
A statement that held all the way around for a different-look version of the Blue Jays.