Espinal, Blue Jays Complete Another Comeback in Gausman's Toronto Debut
Alek Manoah tossed a handful of gum to a pair of young fans sitting behind the Blue Jays bullpen then pulled up a chair. He tucked up next to Hyun Jin Ryu and pitching coach Pete Walker to watch Kevin Gausman’s first throws at Rogers Centre as a Jay.
Hidden in backfields and intrasquad games for most of spring training, Jays fans, too, got their first look at Gausman when the righty took the mound to the ringing cash register, jingling coins, and marching baseline of Pink Floyd’s Money. It was a fitting backing track for the $110 million free-agent acquisition, who, though imperfect, flashed the stuff that earned his payday on the way to a Toronto win.
"He competed, threw strikes, worked quick, kept us in the game," Bo Bichette said. "That's all you can ask for."
Hours after José Berríos logged just one inning in the opener, Gausman provided the reliability GM Ross Atkins touted after inking the righty. Rangers hitters found grass, slapping seven singles off the starter, but Gausman held them without a walk and twirled his signature splitter for five strikeouts. He missed with some heaters down and splitters up, but Gausman's margin for error will grow as the righty gets more exact and finds “midseason form.”
The 31-year-old spun the ball in his hand, looking down at the seams after Andy Ibáñez hacked over a splitter on the inside corner in the second inning. Two pitches later, Alejandro Kirk fired the ball around the horn after Gausman’s third strikeout. The splitter came out to play early and often, diving under Marcus Semien’s bat in the opening frame for his first strikeout as a Jay and finishing Saturday with 11 whiffs.
"Felt good," Gausman said. "The split usually always feels good."
Gausman led the National League in starts last season, finishing with a 2.81 ERA, and earning Cy Young and MVP votes. The guy toeing the Rogers Centre rubber on Saturday wasn’t the same Gausman who made his debut in Toronto in 2013 and struggled with homers across six seasons for the Orioles. The splitter has found new heights, the ball stayed in the park, and now Gausman is on a team with title aspirations.
“We want to be the last team standing,” Gausman said before Opening Day.
The starter left the game down one after five innings, finishing with three earned runs, five strikeouts, and no walks. But, like the night before, the Jays picked up their pitcher. Bo Bichette turned on the Rogers Centre’s new strobe lights with a 425-foot shot in the fifth and the newly powerful Santiago Espinal sent home the fourth run an inning later.
After adding 15 pounds in the offseason, the bulked-up Espinal sent a liner cruising into the left-center gap. The shot, Espinal's third hard-hit ball in two games, sent Raimel Tapia careening around the bases to take the lead. It completed the second comeback of Toronto's opening weekend and a money start to Gausman's Blue Jay career.
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon