Blue Jays (13-10) vs Royals (13-10)
The Blue Jays opened this series the right way last night, taking the first game of the four game series with a solid 5-3 win. They’ll try to make it two in a row tonight, with first pitch once again set for 7:40 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Kevin Gausman will make his fifth start of the year for the Jays, looking to build off his best start of the year as he is ramping up his workload. After throwing just 69 pitches in his first start of the year, Gausman made it up to 101 in his last outing against the Yankees, making it seem pretty reasonable to say that he is fully stretched out. The concern now will be if his arm has recovered from that outing last Thursday and his velocity has bounced back.
The ramp up for Gausman has been fraught with difficulties over the past few weeks. While he has been good for stretches, those good stretches still came with a lot of failed opportunities to put away batters and requiring him to dance out of danger. And when it was bad, it was really bad, including arguably the worst two start stretch of his career. But if he’s back to full velocity and control today, that should remove most of the remaining concerns for him going forward.
Royals’ Starter
The Royals will turn to veteran right hander Michael Wacha, making his fifth start of the season. The 32 year old right hander has found success the last couple seasons, putting up ERAs of 3.32 and 3.22 over roughly 130 innings per year. He’s following along that trend so far this year too, with a 3.75 ERA over 24 innings thus far. But things look even better for him if you go by FIP, as his 3.29 mark is as good as it has been since his sophomore campaign in 2014. The biggest difference for him so far this year is that he has allowed just 2 home runs thus far, a rate that is far better than anything he has put up in a long time.
Wacha’s game is controlling contact, limiting hard hit balls against him, generating a lot of pop ups and generally keeping hitters off balance. When he’s on, there are a lot of routine outs when it seems like the batters should be doing a lot better. So prepare yourself for some frustrations tonight, but hopefully the success the Jays’ batters had against him in 2022 can find its way through.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
Daulton Varsho continued his recent assault on the baseball last night, launching his 6th home run in 9 starts. He also has 3 doubles in that span with 3 walks and 2 singles, and he has a pair of stolen bases as well. That’s a pretty awesome 10 day stretch, and that doesn’t even include his incredible defense. We’ve found peak Varsho, and it is a pretty awesome ride!
It was great to see Bichette drive that triple the other way last night. It was just his fourth hit to part of the field this year. His other three were doubles, twice against the Yankees and once against the Mariners. It’s a place he can find some power, although he his only home run this year was pulled to LF. He needs to start finding those gaps more, and also the seats more.
Danny Jansen caught again last night, marking a second game in a row. He’ll most likely be on the bench today with Alejandro Kirk catching Gausman. Kirk’s ability to frame the low strikes will hopefully come into play a lot for Gausman tonight.
Royals’ Lineup
MJ Melendez’ lefty bat was kept out of the lineup last night against Kikuchi. He’ll be back in there tonight against Gausman, giving the Royals another competent bat.
The Royals have five guys who are having a strong season, but after those 5 the lineup thins out pretty quickly. So keeping the top of the order in check, especially Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez, is the key to finding success.
There are a couple guys who have seen a lot of Kevin Gausman in their careers in this lineup. Garrett Hampson has had 16 PA head to head, and he has 6 hits, including 3 home runs. And Adam Frazier has even more experience, collecting 15 hits in 39 PA, with only Brett Gardner and Xander Bogaerts having more hits against Gausman.
Yesterday’s Heroes
Fangraphs isn’t coopering with me, so I’m going to have to do this blind straight from box scores on MLB.com, and as a result I am likely giving the awards to not quite the best performer. But they’ll be close.
Kody Clemens went 2-4 with a home run and a double, driving in 3 runs to take home the Monster Bat award. His big day in his first game of the season helped the Phillies to the 7-0 win over the Reds.
Carlos Rodón threw 7 shutout innings in a scoreless game, racking up the WPA along the way. He takes home the WPA King trophy with a .438 mark, but he didn’t get the win as the Athletics beat the Yankees 2-0 thanks to a 2 run home run by Zac Gelof in the top of the 9th.
There were a few players, including Rodón, who threw several shutout innings. I’ll give the Pitcher of the Day honours to Ranger Suárez though. Suárez faced a competent Major League team, holding the Reds to just 2 hits and a walk while striking out 5. And he got the win, as noted above in the Phillies’ 7-0 rout of the Reds.
Find the Link
Find the link between Kevin Gausman, Roy Halladay, Roger Clemens and Dave Stieb.