KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nothing about the past week felt normal for Kevin Gausman.
From making his last start with the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday to learning on the team flight to Houston on Sunday night that he had been traded to the Chicago Cubs with the ensuing whirlwind moments in the days after, Gausman’s life was chaotic. Even away from the field — his youngest daughter’s birthday was Thursday.
And yet other than a “little too amped” first inning, as Gausman described it, the veteran right-hander got rolling in his Cubs debut during a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Gausman delivered a strong performance, tossing seven innings and limiting the Royals to two runs on four hits with one walk and four strikeouts on 96 pitches.
Cubs starter Kevin Gausman delivers against the Royals in the seventh inning Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
“It was just nice to get out there and just focus on trying to get guys out,” Gausman, 35, said. “I couldn’t wait to start my routine today because then I could just focus on pitching, which that’s what I do. So, it was nice to just get out there and be able to help this team.”
An ovation from the loud contingent of Cubs fans behind the visitors dugout at Kauffman Stadium greeted Gausman as he walked off the field following a strikeout of Starling Marte to end the seventh. Gausman, who retired 19 of the final 21 batters he faced, became the first Cubs pitcher to throw at least seven innings in his team debut since Jose Quintana also went seven innings on July 16, 2017.
The Cubs (68-49) won their fifth consecutive game and moved 4½ games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers, who lost Friday.
Gausman earned a high-five and slap on the back from manager Craig Counsell in the dugout after his night ended.
“That’s the reason you trade for somebody like this,” Counsell said. “We can’t throw something at him that he hasn’t seen. So guys like that are prepared for anything and that doesn’t take away the emotion of getting traded or seeing your old team come to town right away (Thursday), but it teaches you how to process it and move forward.”
For a moment, Gausman’s Cubs debut appeared it might end before the right-hander could really get going.
Four batters in, Royals catcher Salvador Perez’s 106.2-mph comebacker drilled Gausman in his right ankle. Counsell and head trainer Nick Frangella quickly came out to check on Gausman, who walked it off and threw a couple of test pitches before staying in. Perez reached safely on the play to put runners on the corners, and two pitches later, Isaac Collins gave the Royals the lead on an RBI double. Gausman forced Nick Loftin to pop out to strand two runners, and that was the last jam he had to work through the rest of the night.
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Gausman said he was waiting for his ankle to stiffen up after getting hit but got lucky, explaining the liner caught him partially on his shoe, “so I’ll take that.”
“Once I saw it ricochet, I was hoping it would go right to (Michael Busch), but then the second thought was, ‘Oh, my gosh, did he just … yeah, we’re not even going to talk about that anymore. But I’m glad he’s OK,” catcher Carson Kelly said. “It seemed like he got stronger as it went. Catching that guy for the first time, you’re trying to figure out where should I set up, what kind of flow that he gets into, and then as the game kept going, it was really easy to fall in line. So all in all, just a really really good start. He’s nasty. He really is.”
The Cubs offense quickly erased the 1-0 deficit behind four consecutive hitters reaching with two outs in the top of the second. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s infield single tied the game, and another run scored on the play from a Royals throwing error. Seiya Suzuki followed with a two-run single to extend his career-high on-base streak to 25 games. Alex Bregman’s RBI single in the seventh and Pedro Ramírez’s solo home run in the eighth provided needed insurance runs.
Gausman’s four-seam fastball-splitter combination was nearly untouchable. He registered 12 called strikes with his fastball, which sat 1 mph higher in velocity and touched 96.9 mph, while generating 10 whiffs on his splitter. That was essentially all he needed to keep the Royals in check, just two sliders accounting for the only other pitches he threw in the outing.
“When the pitch is right, it’s just such a difficult pitch for hitters,” Counsell said of Gausman’s splitter. “And the speed difference and the way it looks like a fastball just makes it really hard.”
Fellow new addition Clay Holmes will be activated from the 60-day injured list Saturday to make his Cubs debut, giving an already effective rotation more firepower. Following Gausman’s outing, the Cubs rotation has posted a quality start in 12 of 21 games (57.1%) since the All-Star break — the most in the majors.