TORONTO — Kevin Gausman left a splitter in the heart of the plate, turned around to watch it sail over the left-field wall and then lowered his head.
The third-inning shot by Jake Burger was the third home run the Toronto Blue Jays starter surrendered on Thursday night during another rough outing that will have him searching for answers. It dug a hole too deep for the Blue Jays to overcome as they ultimately fell, 6-5, to the Texas Rangers in front of 35,273 at Rogers Centre.
“When you give up six early in the game, you're putting your team in a hole,” Gausman said. “It was kind of too little too late, and that's on me.”
The Blue Jays’ third consecutive loss dropped them to 39-42 on the season while the Rangers, who sport an identical record, moved into a tie with Toronto for the third and final spot in the American League wild-card standings.
Gausman was coming off his worst outing of the season, a two-inning, seven-run performance at Wrigley Field last Friday that included an uncharacteristic four walks. And while Gausman was around the zone much more during his start against the Rangers, the results weren’t that different.
The right-hander went up 1-2 on Joc Pederson in the opening frame, but the Rangers leadoff man fouled off six pitches before launching a home run to the second deck in right field on the 11th offering of the at-bat. In the third inning, Gausman surrendered a three-run homer to Wyatt Langford, then, after a walk and a strikeout, Burger launched his two-run shot.
“Just bad pitches,” said Gausman. “Simple as that.”
The Rangers’ home runs came off Gausman’s fastball, slider and splitter and he tallied 11 misses on 54 swings (20 per cent). In total, Gausman allowed six runs on 10 hits over six innings, walking two and striking out four on 99 pitches.
With 13 runs over his last two games, the 35-year-old veteran has seen his ERA balloon to 4.36, and he said that before his next start, he plans to take a closer look at his delivery. Gausman noted his front leg is buckling as it lands on the mound and he believes that’s leading to ineffectiveness with his fastball at the top of the strike zone.
“My fastball hasn't been what it has been in the past, so I need to take a look,” he said.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider called Gausman’s last two outings “weird” and expects the right-hander will return to form quickly.
“If there's anyone who’s going to move on from it, it's going to be him,” Schneider said. “We don't want him to shy away from being in the zone. When he's at his best, he's in the zone early, and he's in the zone often. So, I'm really confident he'll get back to that and fastball command is a big part of it.”
The skipper also praised Gausman for pitching through the sixth inning. When he arrived in the dugout after the fifth, Gausman asked Schneider to let him go one more frame so he could help preserve the bullpen.
“He's one of those guys that you trust and he's very adamant about how he feels,” said Schneider. “Him saying, ‘Hey, let me get to a hundred (pitches), last outing was short, let me get it to at least a hundred, let me go out and give us another inning,’ you trust him.”
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays offence was mostly held in check by Rangers left-hander MacKenzie Gore, who retired 11 of the first 12 hitters he faced. However, in the fifth, the Blue Jays loaded the bases with none out and Davis Schneider’s sacrifice fly brought in one run before Myles Straw’s double into the left-field corner plated two more.
Gore quickly recovered, though, and escaped that jam before tossing two more perfect frames.
Earlier Thursday evening, MLB announced that Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement finished Phase 1 of all-star voting as the AL leader and automatically earned the starting assignment at second base for the July 14th contest in Philadelphia.
Clement earned 3,232,932 votes, finishing just behind leading vote-getter Shohei Ohtani (3,341,257) and smiled about that when speaking to media in the Blue Jays' dugout prior to the game.
"It's tough coming in second place to the Dodgers again," Clement said. "That's my first thought. But he's one of the greatest players to ever play this game. To be in the same conversation with some of these guys, it's pretty funny to be honest."
Clement went 2-for-4 on Thursday, including a single to lead off the ninth inning against Jacob Latz. The Rangers closer proceeded to strike out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. during an 11-pitch at-bat that was followed by a two-run homer from Kazuma Okamoto that brought the Blue Jays to within one run.
However, Latz recovered to retire Alejandro Kirk and Brandon Valenzuela to secure the Texas victory.
Schneider was asked for his thoughts on Guerrero Jr.’s ninth-inning battle.
“That was the most engaged I've seen him in a while,” the skipper responded. “I know the results weren't there today, but there were some really good signs from Vladimir today. The last at-bat results in a strikeout, but that's the intensity and the engagement we want every at-bat.
“And not only that, but I just love the way we didn't quit,” added Schneider. “You get down 6-0 with Kev on the mound, it's easy to roll over and say, ‘OK, we're going to lose.’ But scratch and clawing for three and then, Oak, the homer in the ninth off their closer, who's been pretty dominant, hopefully builds some momentum into tomorrow."
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