MIAMI -- If it wasn’t for two pitches on Sunday afternoon, Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman would have been elated with his outing against the Marlins.
But after the 5-3 loss at loanDepot park, it was hard not to focus on the slider that Eric Wagaman smashed for a solo home run in the third inning and the splitter that Jakob Marsee smacked for a three-run triple in the fifth.
Even with those two mistakes, Gausman had plenty of positives to take from this start. He went six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out seven and issuing one walk.
“The biggest thing for me right now is command,” Gausman said. “The last game, I felt like I was all over the place. Today was definitely a step in the right direction. I felt like I was able to throw the fastball wherever I needed to.”
Said Blue Jays manager John Schneider: “Kev’s going to be a horse for us going down the stretch, so I think a lot to build off of today.”
Gausman retired the Marlins in order the first two innings.
“He had really good stuff to start,” Schneider said. “They were trying to swing at pitches up in the zone and lay off the split. I thought he did a really good job of combatting that with some fastballs down.”
“I knew after the first hitter what their gameplan was,” Gausman said. “The down part of the zone was kind of wide open. It was about attacking that until they made an adjustment. They finally did [adjust in the] second and third time through [the lineup].”
The Marlins got three hits off Gausman in the third, including Wagaman’s Statcast-projected 422-foot missile. In the fifth, Gausman walked Xavier Edwards to load the bases with one out. That brought up Marsee, who emptied them with a hit into a gap in left center.
“If I’d thrown him a fastball in, I’d probably strike him out, or a broken bat right there, but you’re always going to say that after the fact,” Gausman said. “I felt confident in the pitch, but just didn’t execute.”
With the Blue Jays trailing 4-0, Bo Bichette led off the seventh with a single down the right-field line. Ty France then drew a walk after falling behind 1-2 in the count, prompting Marlins manager Clayton McCullough to replace starter Eury Pérez with reliever Lake Bachar.
The move backfired.
Daulton Varsho crushed a 96.8 mph fastball from Bachar on the third pitch, sending it a Statcast-projected 424 feet over the center-field wall to cut the Blue Jays’ deficit to 4-3.
With Toronto down, 5-3, in the top of the eighth, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pinch-hit for France with two outs and runners on first and second. It was Guerrero's first appearance since leaving Monday’s game with left hamstring inflammation. He popped out against reliever Ronny Henriquez.
“You get one of your best hitters against one of their best relievers, it’s what you want,” Schneider said. “I thought Vlad had a really good at-bat. He just missed one, a slider he fouled back, before he popped up. Going forward, expect him to be back in [the lineup]."
Moving forward on the mound, the Blue Jays will have a six-man rotation. Max Scherzer is scheduled to start Monday, with Chris Bassitt slated for Tuesday, Eric Lauer set for Wednesday and Shane Bieber scheduled to make his second start back from Tommy John surgery on Friday.
How will that affect Gausman?
“This time of year, the age I am, I think an off-day is only going to help, but we’ll see,” the 34-year-old right-hander said. “I feel pretty confident I’ll be able to do whatever they need me to do.
“Whether that’s pitch on seven days or six days or five, that’s what we need to do. That’s part of the nature of the beast. It’s a good thing because we have so many good pitchers. But it’s also a weird thing because we have so many off-days.”