TORONTO — When Kevin Gausman walked off the baseball field Saturday night, six and two-thirds into Game 2 of the World Series, more than 40,000 fans gave the Toronto Blue Jays ace a standing ovation.
The veteran right-hander completed his World Series debut in his 13th MLB season, giving up just four hits to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It was definitely cool,” Gausman said later of the fan reaction, standing in the Blue Jays clubhouse with the team's baseball cap on his head. “But I don’t necessarily take the lid off.
“I gave up the lead and I was losing the pitcher, so like second through seventh, you know I didn’t do my job.”
Gausman gave the Blue Jays a chance to win by retiring 17 straight batters without walking a single one, but he was bested by Dodgers star shortstop Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched his second straight complete game of the postseason to seal the Dodgers' 5-1 victory, tying this World Series at the plate. each as it transitions to Los Angeles.
“Oh man, Kev was really good,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I thought Kev matched him pitch for pitch, I really did. They both had low pitch counts. It was kind of a classic pitcher's duel, and they took a couple more swings.”
A pair of Dodgers hits came in the first inning when Gausman gave up a pair of hits and an early run. But after that, the 34-year-old recorded those 17 strikeouts in a row from the bottom of the first through the seventh.
“It sure felt good. I got into a good rhythm,” said Gausman, who held Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to zero. “I thought Kirky [Alejandro Kirk] called it a great game. We made pitches up in the zone and down in the zone when needed. And he tried to unbalance them. You know, really, two innings for two really good hitters. That was the difference.”
Those two pitches to two really good hitters came in the seventh, the first a single off the bat of Will Smith and the second off the bat of Max Muncy, making it 3-1 and forcing Gausman out of the game. After both home runs, Gausman spun on the mound and saw the ball go over the left field wall.
“Looking back at Smith's home run, he was trying to go down and away, and it trickled back up and in,” Schneider said. “Same thing with Max.”
Those were the first shots Gausman gave up after the first half.
“He was switched off,” Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lux said. “He was incredible. There were a few passes that didn't go his way, but he pitched really well.”
The point is that Yamamoto performed very, very, very well. The 27-year-old gave up just four hits, walked no one and struck out eight.
It was Louis Varland who came in to relieve Gausman with the Dodgers leading 3–1, and in the eighth Varland loaded the deck and struck out one before closer Jeff Hoffman replaced him on the mound. Hoffman was able to limit the damage, but Yamamoto ended any chance the Blue Jays had of a comeback, something that team did more than any other during the regular season, just 49 times. Game 2 of the World Series was not one of those times.
Yamamoto struck out the side – Andres Jimenez, George Springer and Lux in the eighth. In the ninth, the Blue Jays were up three more, down three, and just like that, the game was over. The second edition of the World Series took just over two and a half hours.
Gausman was blocked while he was in the game, but he could tell Yamamoto was serving up a gem. “I could tell because we were going back and forth pretty quickly. It felt like we didn't give ourselves much of a break,” Gausman said. “It was back and forth all the time, but that’s what it feels like in a pitchers’ duel.”
Despite the loss, Gausman took some positives from Saturday's game that he had been waiting for.
“First World Series, I'm 34 years old, so that was fun,” he said. “It was a lot of fun there and I wish I had thrown a no in the first, obviously, but I got out of it and, like I said, got into the game. But it was just a fun place to pitch. And the fans definitely let me know before the game how excited they were.”
Not that you know Gausman even noticed the fans. When he emerged from the bullpen before Game 2, he had a Gatorade towel around his neck and stared at the Dodgers' bench with a straight face. Gausman barely blinked as he walked and watched, looking like a fighter about to destroy his opponent.
“I find that it helps me kind of focus,” Gausman said of his pregame concentration as he headed to the mound. “I call it my 'victory walk.'
Gausman didn't win in his highly anticipated World Series debut on Saturday, but he gave his team a one-win chance.
“I could have served it better,” he said. “Apparently the guy on the other side did it.”
