NEW YORK — Kevin Gausman is having a tremendous season, even though he regularly runs into dumb luck. Note that the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander headed into his start Friday against the New York Yankees worth 4.4 wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs estimates, third among all major league pitchers. However, his 3.16-plus ERA was more than a run above his 2.08 FIP, and then, of course, there was his batting average on balls in play, or BABIP, of .372, the highest among qualified pitchers by a wide margin.
The way the Cleveland Guardians bled him for five runs last weekend in a 7-2 win, finding holes in pitches that beat them, was a prime example of why the Blue Jays went 11- 11 in his first 22 starts.
“It’s weird,” interim coach John Schneider said before the game. “When you put his stuff in the vacuum, it’s like, really, really, really good. So part of it is I think everybody goes through those ups and downs, lucky, unlucky, whether you’re a hitter or a pitcher. We like his stuff. Obviously, we trust him and I’m sure things will go his way.”
In start No. 23, they certainly did, Gausman dominated over seven shutout innings in pushing the Blue Jays to a third straight victory, 4-0 over the New York Yankees on Friday night.
Initially, it looked like he might be in for a fight night when DJ LeMahieu hit his first pitch of the game, a 91.2 mph, 404-foot fastball to center where Whit Merrifield tracked it down on a play that had a chance of 35 percent shooting, and Aaron Judge followed with a walk. But Gausman escaped that inning unscathed, striking out the side at second and allowing just three hits in the following frames while striking out seven.
“That’s huge,” Gausman said of Merrifield’s catch. “I always think that the first guy in the game definitely sets the tone, whether you give up a hit or pass it. Having a good defensive play on the first pitch of the game definitely woke me up.”
From there, the Yankees, 12-24 in their last 36 games, fell apart helpless against their mostly fastball/splitter mix, with eight of their 15 swings in the splits resulting in whiffs . Even with his fastball down a tick, sitting at 94.1 instead of his season average of 95, he was on top from the second inning on.
He went seven or more innings for the sixth time this season.
“To be honest, I never felt like I got into that much of a groove, which seems strange to say,” Gausman admitted. “Some days, at-bat to at-bat, like you’re in the groove. Some days it’s long inning stretches. Today I felt like I was striking out the first guy a lot and when you can do that, you put yourself in good positions to not allow large entries.”
The Yankees, already outclassed for an extended stretch, crumbled powerless against his mostly fastball/splitter mix, with eight of his 15 swings in the splits resulting in whiffs. Even with his fastball down a tick, sitting at 94.1 instead of his season average of 95, he was on top from the second inning on.
Meanwhile, the offense, missing George Springer, who missed a ball on the knee during a five-hit effort in Thursday’s 9-2 win, didn’t make it one-sided in the same way, but returned to represent a constant threat from the jump. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was robbed of a home run to right by a jumping Oswaldo Cabrera on the first pitch of the game and the pressure was on from there.
Yankees starter Jameson Taillon held them in check until the third, when Merrifield led off the inning with a single, advanced to third on a double by Cavan Biggio and scored on a groundout by Gurriel.
An inning later, Alejandro Kirk led off the frame with a base hit before Teoscar Hernandez launched home run No. 18 over the wall in left-center after missing a shot to center at second.
“I was looking for one of those breaking pitches (in the first at-bat), I got it and I hit it pretty good, but not enough to hit it out of the park,” said Hernandez, who homered with a fastball his second at-bat. “But for me it was a good sign because the plan I had was working from the beginning.”
The Blue Jays missed a chance to bury the Yankees in the sixth when they put men on second and third with no outs, but Lou Trivino replaced Taillon and stranded the runners. They finally got one up in the ninth when they loaded the bases against Aroldis Chapman before Ron Marinaccio gave up a huge sacrifice bunt to Danny Jansen that made it 4-0.
Steadfastness of focus is the biggest difference between his current three-game winning streak and the 3-9 stretch that preceded it.
“Patience is good. Communication between the players is good. Kind of having a collective focus versus how they’re going to get that starter every night,” Schneider said of what allows the Blue Jays to keep the heat at the plate right now. “When you get together a little bit, it doesn’t have to be the same guy every night and every guy does his part and passes on to the next guy. That’s the most important thing here.”
Jordan Romano locked things down in the ninth, making sure a brilliant night from Gausman didn’t go to waste. At 64-54, the Blue Jays re-tighten their grip on a wild-card spot after nearly letting it slip away.
“We just know we’ve got to win games,” Gausman said. “Sometimes we have focused on other teams and now we have put ourselves in a good place. But we’ll make the postseason or not depending on how we play this last month plus. We all know that. We know it’s going to be a challenge, while I think that urgency was lacking at some points in the season. Where we are now, (44) games left, we have to fight and now we have to go.”
Gausman will be one of the keys to getting them there. He has now thrown at least six shutout innings in three of his last four starts, capped by that unlucky outing against Cleveland. It’s a reminder of the great season he’s having, one even better than his impressive stats already suggest.