Gausman was Great, Jays Win

Red Sox 2 Blue Jays 7

It is so nice to see a good starting pitching performance. It seems like it has been a long long time.

Kevin Gausman threw seven shutout innings, allowing just 4 hits (3 singles and a ‘double’ that would have been an out but it hit the second base bag, and deflected away from ), 2 walks and 10 strikeouts. It was much more like the early season Gausman than the guy we’ve seen over the last few starts.

We needed a starter to go deep into a game. Thank you, Kevin.

And we got a bunch of homers. Three of them.

We scored:

• One in the first: George Springer started us off with a walk and Bo Bichette doubled him home. I was hoping for more, but Vlad struck out (a rare poor at-bat), Alejandro Kirk ground one to short, but Bichette wandered too far off first and was put out after a brief rundown. If we hadn’t scored so many runs, we would have been cursing that play. And Teoscar Hernandez struck out.
• Three in the third: Springer homered, Bo singled, and Vlad homered. The next two batters got one, Kirk hit by pitch and Hernandez singled, but that was the end of the fun.
• Three in the fifth: Kirk doubled, Teoscar singled and Matt Chapman hit his 11th home run of the season.

We had 10 hits, 3 homers and 3 doubles. There were also two hit batters but both were on fairly soft pitches.

Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit, except Santiago Espinal, who didn’t look great at the plate, but everyone has some down parts to the season. He’s now 0 for his last 16. Bo and Teoscar had 2 hits each.

David Phelps got 3 flyouts in the eighth. Shaun Anderson got his first Blue Jays playing time in the ninth. It did not go well, 2 singles, a sac fly, another single, a popup. Next batter ground one that hit Anderson and it bounced away from him. His throw to first was in the dirt and Vlad couldn’t scoop it. A fly-out (on a full count, Anderson did get robbed on a call or two that at-bat).

Jays of the Day: Gausman (.239 WPA), Springer (.125) and Bichette (.121).

The Red Sox went with starter Connor Seabold a lot longer than I would have expected (he gave up 7 runs in 4.2 innings. I guess they didn’t want to use up the bullpen.

A nice way to start the series with the Red Sox.