Great Start From Gausman, Jays Win

Jays 6 Royals 3

Two starts into the season, Kevin Gausman hasn’t allowed an earned run yet. And he evens his record at 1-1. Today he went 6 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 walks with 7 strikeouts. Just a great start.

And Vlad Guerrero hit a home run and had a couple of singles. He’s hitting .423 now. Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho had two hits each. Cavan Biggio hit his first homer of the season (400 feet).

Kevin Kiermaier hit a hustle double, which had to be seen to be believed:

That was a big play, as Bo Bichette followed with a single, driving him home.

On the other end of the scale, Brandon Belt and Danny Jansen were each 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.

Two of Gausman’s hits came to start the seventh inning, which ended his day, but Anthony Bass didn’t allow them to score, getting two strikeouts and a ground out.

The eighth inning is where the wheels fell off:

• Since Bass threw all of 8 pitches, he had to come out of the game cause we hate leaving a reliever in the game who is doing great. I don’t understand managers. Trevor Richards gives up a home run (barely glancing off the outside of the left-field foul pole). A walk and a single-ended Richard’s day.
• Tim Mayza came in and poured more gas on the situation. A single, double and fly-out made it a 6-3 game, bringing the tying run to the plate.
• Yimi Garcia, thankfully, came in and got two strikeouts.

But Garcia threw 11 pitches, and we hate leaving a guy in who is going great, so Adam Cimber comes in. A hard-hit ground ball that Chapman made a nice play on got out number 1. A full-count weak one hit back to Cimber got us the second out. And a strikeout earned Cimber his sixth save as a Blue Jay,

Whew.....

Jays of the Day: Gausman (.203 WPA), Garcia (.157) and Chapman (.103, plus some good defense). Honourable mention: Cimber, Varsho, Bo, Biggio and Vlad.

The Other Award: Mayza (-.113). And I’m giving Richards one (-.068); he faced three batters, giving up 2 hits (including the homer) and a walk.

The Jays are now 4-3, which seems ok after the panic when they were 1-3.

Tomorrow, a late evening game (9:30 Eastern) with the Jays visiting the Angels. Bassitt gets to try to make up for his first start. Patrick Sandoval, a lefty, starts for the bad guys.