There are few players in Major League Baseball who are as accountable as Kevin Gausman. The veteran starter sets a high standard for himself and when expectations aren’t met, he’s the first person to admit it.
Gausman doesn’t sugarcoat much of anything. He’s blunt, honest and straight to the point in his dealings with the media. While some big-league players disappear when things aren’t going their way, Gausman steps in front of the cameras after every outing, good or bad.
So, when Gausman was asked for his assessment of a 9-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday afternoon the Blue Jays right-hander predictably didn’t make any excuses and put the blame squarely on his shoulders. The 34-year-old needs to be better and he knows it.
“I feel like everybody did their jobs this series, and I just didn’t,” Gausman said after allowing seven runs on seven hits and three walks. “We’re playing really good right now, going for a sweep today and I go out there and do that. So, I’m pretty frustrated.”
After beginning the year strong, Gausman has hit a rough patch. Since April 21, the native of Colorado has gone 3-5 with an uncharacteristically high 5.49 ERA. Gausman has four quality starts in those 11 appearances, but he also has three outings in which he allowed at least six runs. Mr. Consistent has been anything but during an up-and-down year.
There shouldn’t be too much criticism of Gausman during this poor stretch. He pitched his heart out for the Jays during each of the previous three seasons, proving to be worth every penny of the five-year $110-million (U.S.) contract he signed in 2022. Over that same span, he bailed out an underperforming lineup more times than this columnist can count, so he deserves some leeway.
Still, this is a what-have-you-done-for-me lately kind of league and the recent results have seen wild swings from exceptionally good to exceptionally bad. Thursday was the latter as Gausman served up homers to Eugenio Suárez and Pavin Smith while allowing multiple runs in three of the five innings he was on the mound.
“My split was moving a lot today, but I couldn’t make the adjustment, figure out how to throw it for a strike and then how to throw it for a ball,” Gausman said. “That’s kind of the story for my season right now. June has been really ugly for me. I need to take a deep look, try to figure things out and get better.
“If I can get back to who I am, I think that’s the next step for this team. I hope to be a big part of it, and right now I feel like I’m not doing my end.”
Despite Thursday’s sluggish performance, the Jays managed to come away with a series victory over a .500 Diamondbacks team that has been playing much better in recent weeks. That continued a strong stretch which saw the Jays go 9-5 against the Philadelphia Phillies, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals and Diamondbacks, all of whom still have visions of the playoffs.
As a reward for surviving that difficult slate, the Jays will now get three games at home against the lowly Chicago White Sox who, at 23-51, have the fewest wins in the American League. That presents an opportunity to keep the good vibes going before the competition picks up later this month with series against the Cleveland Guardians, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
The Jays managed to at least make Thursday’s game interesting even though they fell behind big early. Alejandro Kirk’s strong season continued with a pair of homers while Jonatan Clase also went deep. They cut an eight-run deficit to four, but that was as close as the Jays would get. Even so, there were a lot of positives to take away from the past few days.
“Today just wasn’t our day,” Jays manager John Schneider said. “You feel like you’re never out of it with our offence. They came back in the seventh and eighth. Overall, (the Diamondbacks) are a really good hitting team and I thought we played fairly well. Taking today out of it, we played really well.”
The Jays have won 14 of their past 20 games to narrow the gap behind the first-place New York Yankees. A deficit that sat at eight games on May 28 has been trimmed to three. With seven games coming up next month against the Yankees, there will be ample opportunity to trim that lead even more, or take sole possession of the AL East division lead.
To continue making that push, the Jays will need to get more consistent production from the rotation. That didn’t happen on Thursday, but if there’s improvement in the coming weeks, a spot in the playoffs will look increasingly more realistic.
The lineup that once struggled has turned things around. Now it’s on Gausman and the other veteran starters to do the same.
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