TORONTO -- Five days after mystifying the Boston Red Sox over eight dominant innings at Fenway Park, Kevin Gausman and his mesmerizing splitter once again had them swinging through air.
Another gem, this time six innings of four-hit, nine-strikeout, one-unearned-run brilliance, reinforced how his repertoire will not only play in the American League East meat-grinder, but that familiarity will do little to help opponents do damage against him.
Really, what the Toronto Blue Jays must do is make sure they take advantage of what Gausman gives them, something they did in dramatic fashion Tuesday night, rallying with three runs in the ninth before a Raimel Tapia sacrifice fly in the 10th beat the Boston Red Sox 6-5.
Like so many other wins in their 12-6 start, it was a trip.
“This team, they just come at you and they never feel like they're out of the game,” said Gausman. “It's tough on teams, for sure.”
The same applies to the right-hander, who handed a 2-1 lead over to the bullpen that Yimi Garcia coughed up during a four-run eighth -- the first earned runs against him in nine outings so far.
But Jake Diekman couldn’t lock things down in the ninth, when consecutive doubles by Tapia and Santiago Espinal made it 5-3 before George Springer’s fourth homer of the season and the 200th of his career sailed over the left-centre field wall to force extras.
Jordan Romano, facing the heart of the Red Sox lineup, followed with a zero in the top of the 10th, calmly recovering after a Xander Bogaerts comebacker hit him in the upper leg to get the out at first before striking out J.D. Martinez to end the frame.
The Red Sox then intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr., to open the bottom half, Alejandro Kirk worked another walk after falling behind 0-2 to load the bases and after Matt Barnes caught Matt Chapman looking, Matt Strahm came in.
Tapia battled him for nine pitches before driving a slider over a five-man infield to left field, allowing Bo Bichette to trot home and trigger bedlam among a crowd of 22,611.
“It's like I celebrated my first birthday -- very, very happy to help my team win a game like that,” Tapia, who after falling behind 0-2, saw five straight sliders, fouling off four of them, before eventually getting one he could drive, said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “You've got to stay ready for the fastball. In the back of my mind, I thought about the slider. But if I look for the slider, then I won't be able to hit the fastball.”
The three-hour, 47-minute affair was the latest exercise in resilience for a Blue Jays team that has played seven one-run games in the last nine outings, winning five of them. Even after the Red Sox rallied in the eighth and nothing was doing in the bottom half, the offence ignited in a flash in the ninth.
“It's who this team has been ever since I got here,” said Springer. “There's no real panic. There's always a belief that we're one at-bat away, one big play on the field, one pitch away from being back in the ballgame. …
“We're a very, very good team from top to bottom,” he added. “We all kind of complement each other, understand each other’s role, understand our role individually. We all play as a team and we're all heading in the same direction.”
Gausman led the way through the leverage tightrope.
The only Boston run off him came in the top of the fourth, when Bogaerts bounced a ball against the shift, stole second and took off for third when Zack Collins’ throw ended up in centre field. Kike Hernandez cashed him in with a sacrifice fly on a liner brilliantly chased down by a diving Bradley Zimmer.
Other than that, the Red Sox managed precious little against Gausman, who had 19 swinging strikes, 14 of them on his splitter. His fastball, dotted around the zone, touched 97.5 m.p.h. and sat 95.6, up from his season average of 94, as he attacked relentlessly.
He didn’t issue a walk while striking out nine, with his pitch usage almost identical to the one five days earlier.
“To be honest, I wasn't going to make many changes,” said Gausman. “I was going to pitch to my strengths, see what they were going to do and then kind of adjust my game plan. They definitely took more first-pitch strikes. I don't know if that was the plan going in, but overall, I still threw fastballs and splits. I just had to be a little bit more fine with some of them in certain spots.”
That’s easier said than done, but is reflective of the calibre of pitcher he is.
The Red Sox would have him fresh in their minds from last week, knew what to expect from him and it didn’t make a lick of difference.
“It just shows you how good he is, the command of the stuff that he has,” said Springer. “He is who he is for a reason. I mean, there's some familiarity if you just saw a guy but every day is new and you don't know how he feels that day, the velocity, all that stuff. He came out and I very much thought he was himself and he gave us a chance to win the game.”
That he did, and even after things went sideways, the Blue Jays found a way, as they have so often in the opening month of the new season.
