Great Start From Kevin Gausman, Jays Beat Astros

Astros 1 Blue Jays 5

It is about time we had a Kevin Gausman appreciation thread. He’s been so good this year. Tonight, 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned (a Mauricio Dubón home run, on the second pitch of the game), no walks, and he tied a season and career high with 13 strikeouts.

He was pretty much untouchable all game long.

Erik Swanson pitched

Once again, we didn’t score many runs for him, just 5. The first four all came on home runs:

• George Springer had a two-run homer in the third.
• Daulton Varsho had a solo homer in the fourth. The ball hit the top of the wall and bounced off the railing above and back onto the field. Daulton ran it out hard and had a triple, but, on review, they called it a home run.
• Bo Bichette also had a solo homer in the eighth.

And we got a non-home run in the eighth. After Bo’s homer, Vladimir Guerrero walked and went to second on an overthrow on a pickoff attempt by the Astro’s catcher. Then Whit Merrifield popped one up foul along the first base line, but right fielder Kyle Tucker had the ball go off his glove for an error. Merrifield made them pay with a double, scoring Vlad.

Merrifield was caught trying to steal third right after. I do not like guys trying to steal third unless you are sure you can get there. Already in scoring position, why push it?

We had just 5 hits tonight, but 3 were home runs. And we had 5 walks. Astros starter Hunter Brown was also very good.

Erik Swanson pitched a quick eighth, getting 2 strikeouts. Trevor Richards, in because it wasn’t a save situation because of the run scored in the eighth, gave up a walk but got a nice double play to end the game.

Jays of the Day: Gausman (.282 WPA) and Springer (.176).

No one gets the ‘Other Award’.

Game 3 of the series with the Astros is tomorrow. Chris Bassitt (6-4, 3.41) gets his first start as a father of two. Ronel Blanco (1-0, 4.15) gets his second start of the season. He had made 9 relief appearances before his start last week against the Angels. He went 5.1 innings with 2 earned against in that game.