Kevin Gausman Overpowers Rays in Blue Jays' 3-1 Win
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Drew Rasmussen was really good for Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, but Toronto's Kevin Gausman was even better.
Gausman pitched eight scoreless innings of one-hit ball for the Blue Jays as the struggling Rays offense remained in its funk in a 3-1 loss at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night. Gausman, who's now 8-8 on the season, struck out 10 and didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning when Tampa Bay shortstop Taylor Walls led off with a single.
This is how good Gausman was, He erased Walls just four pitches later, getting a double play ball from Randy Arozarena. Walls had another hit in the ninth, a solo homer off of closer Jordan Romano, who picked up his league-leading 25th save.
The Blue Jays (58-45) have now won 11 of their last 13 games and moved four games ahead of Tampa Bay (54-49) in the AL wild-card race. The Rays currently hold the sixth and final AL wild-card spot, but only by one game over the Cleveland Guardians. The Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox are all within two games now of the struggling Rays, who are just 3-8 out of the All-Star break.
The Rays never threatened after the first inning, where Gausman walked leadoff hitter Randy Arozarena and then hit Isaac Paredes. He retired 14 Rays hitters in a rown until that Walls hit in the sixth. He was efficient, too, getting through eight innings on just 103 pitches.
"He was locating his heater ... He was nasty," Toronto interim manager John Schneider said. "When he puts that where he wants it in the zone with his spilt, he's really, really tough to hit. He was just basically dominant tonight."
Rasmussen (6-4) had another great outing for Rays. He allowed a first-inning run on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. double and RBI single by Bo Bichette, but then shut them down from there, cruising through six innings of work. Rasmussen has a 2.37 ERA in his six starts since returning from the injured list with a hamstring injury. Rasmussen lost at Tropicana Field for the first time in 18 career apps — including 11 starts — and lost at home for the first time in 32 career big-league appearances between the Milwaukee Brewers and Rays.
It was still a 1-0 game into the ninth inning when the Blue Jays got two runs off of Rays reliever Shawn Armstrong. Danny Jansen had a two-run single that was just off the glove of Tampa Bay center fielder Jose Siri, who was playing his first game for the Rays since coming over in a trade from Houston. He charged in and dove for the ball, but it just barely skipped out of his glove. Siri was 0-for-3 in his Rays debut, with two strikeouts.
Tampa Bay is 3-8 since the All-Star break and the Rays have scored just 14 runs in the eight losses, an average of 1.75 runs per game.
The two teams meet again on Wednesday to end this quick two-game series. Lefty Yusei Kikuchi (4-5) will start for Toronto. The Rays will use Jalen Beeks (1-1) as the opener, with lefty Ryan Yarbrough expected to get the bulk of the innings.
Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.