Jays Win 5-3, Take Series

Two series wins in a row! They’re buyers!

It was good to see a strong start from Gausman, who was very effective today in spite of a slightly different approach. And the lineup combined for 10 hits and three walks with a pair of homers, which isn’t exactly earth shattering but is a very strong effort by this season’s standards. It’s good to see guys like Spencer Horwitz and Leo Jimenez look like they belong in the majors, too.

The offense had a pretty good day for the second time in a row. They struck in the first inning, off singles by George Springer and Spencer Horwitz and a sac ground out and a sac fly by Vladimir Guerrero jr. and Justin Turner, respectively, going ahead 2-0. Danny Jansen followed with a solo home run to push the lead to three.

They added one run in each of the fourth and fifth innings. The first came on a trio of two out singles from Davis Schneider, Kevin Kiermaier, and Leo Jimenez. The second was a splash-hit solo shot by Spencer Horwitz (who is now the second most valuable rookie in the AL by fWAR, trailing only Baltimore’s Colton Cowser, who has nearly three times as many PAs). That home run, and hitting Justin Turner two batters later, drove Jordan Hicks out of the game.

On the other side, Kevin Gausman had an unusual but very effective day. He leaned heavily on his fastball, throwing fewer splitters than usual, and as a result racked up only three strikeouts on the afternoon. He also avoided too much hard contact, though, and allowed only six hits across seven innings without walking a batter. Two of those hits came in the first inning, when Patrick Bailey reached on a ground ball single and Heliot Ramos went deep to left-centre, accounting for the only two runs Gausman would surrender on the afternoon.

At that point things went pretty quiet. Randy Rodriguez shut the Jays down for 2.2 innings after Hicks was knocked out. Tyler Rogers surrendered hits to Jansen and Clement in the eighth, but escaped the jam without conceding a run. His identical twin brother Taylor worked a scoreless ninth, conceding only a walk to George Springer. Zach Pop worked a clean eighth for the road side.

The only drama came in the bottom of the ninth. Chad Green recorded the first two outs, but then gave up a deep home run to Mike Yastrzemski that cut the Jays’ lead to 5-3. He rallied to strike out Wilmer Flores, though, ending the game and securing the save.

Jays of the Day: Gausman (0.188), Horwitz (0.155),

Throw ‘em in McCovey Cove: nobody

The Jays fly to Phoenix next for a three game set with the Diamondbacks. Yariel Rodriguez (1-3, 3.68) will try to build off two excellent starts in a row. Arizona hasn’t announced their starter yet. First pitch goes at 9:40pm ET (hey, at least it’s not a school night this time).