TORONTO – All off-season, the Toronto Blue Jays considered how the physical toll of last year’s run to the World Series might impact them this year and sought ways to counter any possible effects. They talked to people around the league in search of advice. They tweaked how certain players were built up during spring training to account for the extra work.
Yet Saturday, as Nathan Lukes became the 12th player placed on the injured list during a roster-churning start to the year, manager John Schneider conceded that he’d be “lying if I said I hadn’t thought about” whether last fall had contributed in some way.
“But then looking at a broken toe, probably not; a broken thumb, probably not; a rolled ankle on the bases, probably not,” he continued. “When you’re talking about some soft-tissue stuff, you’re like, OK, maybe. … So I think a little bit coincidence, but I mean, it could, you know what I mean? It’s an extra month and it’s an extra month of really, really high-stress games. I know some position players were talking at the end of camp about, I usually feel ready 10 days ago and I needed all of spring training to feel ready.”
Despite a remarkable 223.2 innings a year ago, and amid the opening month chaos, the stabilizing force Kevin Gausman provides continues unabated.
The 35-year-old right-hander, who pitched into the sixth inning in each of his first five starts, pushed into the seventh for the first time in Saturday afternoon’s 5-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians, providing vital length after Max Scherzer lasted only 2.1 innings the previous night.
Of course with Gausman, it’s not just quantity but also quality, allowing only a pair of runs, one scratched out on a double and two groundouts in the third, another on a David Fry homer in the seventh after the Blue Jays took control of the game with a three-run sixth.
Through six starts, he’s ninth in the majors with 35 innings pitched and eighth with 38 strikeouts, with an ERA of 2.57 and a tremendous WHIP of 0.94 thanks to only six walks thus far. He “for sure” wondered what effect last year would have on him now and looks exactly like his regular, dependable, elite self.
“Listen, I did one thing, one off-season, one way for 13 years and then had to re-evaluate what I was going to do and when I was going to start throwing, really everything,” said Gausman. “A lot of question marks for me, honestly. Like, is my arm going to be ready? Is my body going to be ready? Just such a different off-season than normal. But I feel like we did a great job as an organization of making sure that everybody was building up slowly and gave me some days early in spring to have a day off here and there. Those things are small at the time, but now they look pretty big.”
Especially with the Blue Jays rotation in flux from the moment Cody Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury 2.1 innings into his first start. The latest shuffling came Saturday, when Schneider said Patrick Corbin will move up to Sunday and Dylan Cease pushed back to Monday, with Trey Yesavage rejoining the rotation Tuesday as Eric Lauer heads to the bullpen.
Within that context, Gausman’s steadiness is even more valuable.
“Kev is so good, so consistent,” said Schneider. “That’s like the third in a row where we’ve needed him to do that (after a short start) and he did it. That team makes a ton of contact and I thought he pitched really, really well. Kev has turned into our ace over time. He probably has been for a while, but when you get him going … it just makes everything easier, not only for the game that he’s starting, but for the next day, too.”
Against the Guardians, he held the game in check until the offence knocked out Joey Cantillo and got to Matt Festa for Daulton Varsho’s go-ahead RBI single under the glove of second baseman Juan Brito, and Andres Gimenez’s two-run double.
Kazuma Okamoto’s bases-loaded walk in the seventh, to go with his game-tying solo shot in the fourth and single and run scored in the sixth, made it 5-2 and ensured a low-leverage finish for Tyler Rogers in the eighth. Louis Varland gave up Kyle Manzardo’s RBI double and loaded the bases before collecting his second save in the ninth in place of Jeff Hoffman.
The win ended a two-game losing skid for the Blue Jays (11-15) and gives them a chance to win a second consecutive Sunday, when Corbin starts against Slade Cecconi in the finale.
“It’s like my first experience of a true save opportunity, so it’s kind of like a new feeling,” Varland said of handling the ninth. “It’s basically what Hoffman the past couple of years has been dealing with, team is on your shoulders, you’re dealing with a lot of pressure, it’s like (the) highest pressured situation, (a) closing scenario. It was weird, I wasn’t used to it, obviously, but hopefully I get more used to it as time comes, whether that comes in the seventh, eighth or ninth.”
That Gausman helped set the Blue Jays right is something the club’s become accustomed to over the past four years of an exceptionally successful $110-million, five-year deal. He made 31 starts in each of his first three seasons in Toronto and 32 last year and is being counted on to provide similar durability this year, which he’s done thus far extra work a year ago be damned.
Fundamental is the way he’s maintained the delivery he locked in roughly midway through last season, with a slightly smaller leg kick that’s been a better fit for both the pitch clock and controlling the running game. He made a priority of trying to maintain those mechanics over the winter, allowing him to pick up where he left off.
“I felt so good at the end of the season last year that I just kind of pushed my throwing back, but I still tried to make sure I was doing all my dry work on the mound to keep that delivery where I felt like it was really good,” he said. “It’s definitely paid off. I’m more happy with my ability to throw strikes right now and not walk guys, because when I can do that, I can go deep in the game and that’s what we need right now.”
Time and again Gausman delivers, giving his team a chance to win his day while also resetting the pitching staff for a better turn the next time through.