Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Gausman: The Blue Jays' Rotation Rock
Kevin Gausman sits by his locker before starts. Head down, quiet and calm.
He stretches in the outfield, whips warmup pitches in the bullpen, and marches across the turf in silence, quiet and calm. As Pink Floyd's "Money" bounces around Rogers Centre, the righty mimes deliveries with his glove and delivers a final practice pitch, quiet and calm.
Amid the early ups and downs of Toronto's starting rotation, Gausman has been the rock. He's the quiet and calm rotation constant. With eight innings and 11 strikeouts on Wednesday, his start against Detroit brought more of that needed dependability.
"It feels good when you know you got him going out there," Manager John Schneider said.
Entering Wednesday, Blue Jays starters rocked a collective 6.22 ERA. The rotation has provided four quality starts through 12 games, and Gausman's responsible for three of them. The Jays have high expectations for the group of five former All-Star starters, but the splitter-chucker has been the lone consistent, so far.
Gausman carved his way out of the first inning on 16 pitches. After a final dashing splitter under the bat of Riley Greene, the starter bounced off the mound, spinning on the rubber before trotting back to the dugout. As he stepped over the foul line, Gausman hucked his piece of gum to the left. He made that walk seven more times, for eight gum-hucks in total.
After his start against the Tigers, Gausman moved his season line to three outings, 20 innings pitched, and three earned runs. Before allowing a homer in the fourth, he set a Blue Jays franchise record for innings without an earned run to start a season (15.1). A night after Alek Manoah battled his command and mechanics—an unexpected outing from Toronto's Opening Day ace—Gausman provided stability.
"Nothing is really too big for him," Schneider said. "He pumps it up when he needs to, but it's just kind of who he is, as a person."
With fastball velocity ticked back up to 95 miles per hour, Gausman peppered the zone with heaters and had the splitter breaking away for plenty of swing-and-miss. He drew 24 swings on the split Wednesday, and 14 of those went down as whiffs (58%).
"He's got an arsenal," George Springer said. "He knows how to pitch and he's smart."
As Kerry Carpenter aimlessly hacked over a falling splitter, Gausman spun off the rubber and walked around the mound. He looked upward, munching on a fresh piece of gum, before re-taking his spot 60 feet and six inches away from the next victim.
Gausman's splitter induced vertigo in the batter's box on Wednesday, the best he's felt with his offspeed pitch so far this season. Despite two homers against, he was able to work clean and efficiently, placing first-pitch strikes to keep ahead and maintain a low pitch count.
After Schneider sent his starter back out for an eighth inning, Miguel Cabrera slapped a liner into right field and chugged into second for a quick threat. With the Jays down two, a fourth Detroit run could've put the game out of reach of Toronto's bats. So, Gausman bore down. A grounder and two strikeouts, both on splitters, kept the inning scoreless and the lead within reach.
"Him going back out there the eighth inning and shutting it down, even after the leadoff double," Schneider said. "It's like alright, man, this dude gets it."
Gausman didn't get the win, but he gave the Jays his latest steady outing. He's been giving Toronto a chance at victory since he signed last offseason, and on Wednesday the team seized it. The Blue Jays have proved they don't need elite starting pitching to win baseball games, but with questions lingering over the rest of the rotation, Gausman's quiet and calm make it easier.
