TORONTO — The Blue Jays were one out away.
Kevin Gausman had just pitched six dominant innings, answering some important questions about the resilience of his arm after a 53-pitch inning last weekend in New York. Bo Bichette had homered on the first pitch of the game, ending his power drought and providing the Blue Jays with a lead. And Yimi Garcia got close to finishing the Guardians and extending Toronto’s winning streak to four.
But the Guardians battled against Garcia, loading the bases with a series of tenacious at-bats. The reliever’s pitch count climbed, and pitching for the third time in four days, he had trouble finishing off Cleveland’s hitters, who fouled off 11 pitches. With closer Jeff Hoffman unavailable due to his own heavy workload, Garcia got a mound visit from pitching coach Pete Walker, but the right-hander stayed in the game.
Then, on his 32nd pitch of the day, Daniel Schneemann hit a grand slam to give the Guardians the lead, chase Garcia from the game and lead Cleveland to a 5-3 win over the Blue Jays, who fall to 16-17 on the season.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Blue Jays appeared to be on their way to an encouraging win. Six days ago, when Gausman last pitched, he lost his command and his velocity wavered as he threw 53 pitches in a single inning, tying a Blue Jays record before he was finally pulled from the game. But on Saturday, Gausman looked like a frontline starter again.
He dominated Cleveland’s lineup over the course of six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out nine.
Entering play Saturday, there were still some questions as to how Gausman would respond to the physical toll of throwing so many pitches without interruption. The effort tied a franchise record set by Woody Williams in 1998 and marked the biggest single-inning total by any MLB pitcher since 2022.
While the circumstances that led to the 53 pitches must be considered, it still represented an exceptional and potentially risky workload, leading the Blue Jays to give Gausman an extra day to recover and prompting Schneider to say that he never again intends to let a pitcher throw that much at once.
With that in mind, it was a relief to see Gausman bounce back so well. Not only did he limit Cleveland to one hit on a day Jose Ramirez was unavailable due to an ankle sprain, but he maintained his command and velocity consistently as the game progressed. His fastball averaged 95.2 m.p.h. Saturday — an improvement over his season average of 94.3 m.p.h. — and he touched 97 m.p.h. in his final inning on the way to 94 total pitches.
Considering the importance of Gausman to the Blue Jays’ playoff hopes, this performance mattered a lot.
After Gausman exited, the Blue Jays still had to cover three innings on a day Hoffman and left-handed reliever Brendon Little appeared to be unavailable. Mason Fluharty pitched a scoreless seventh and Chad Green allowed a solo home run to Schneemann before the Guardians put up four against Garcia.
Offensively, Bichette’s first pitch swing was an encouraging development as the shortstop hadn’t hit a home run in his first 32 games of the 2024 season. In fact, the home run was Bichette’s first since May 27 of last year, so it’s no surprise he smiled and put his hands together in prayer for a moment as he rounded the bases this time.
The Blue Jays had lots of chances in this one, with multiple runners on base in the first, second, third and fourth, yet there were no more big swings to be found. While Nathan Lukes provided a bases-loaded walk and Tyler Heineman delivered a sacrifice fly, the team collected just one hit in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Of course, it’s the pitching rather than the offence that stands out most after this one. While Gausman’s performance was legitimately encouraging, it was quickly overshadowed by Garcia’s extended outing and the frustrating loss that ensued.
