Kevin Gausman pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his career and the Toronto Blue Jays rebounded from a walk-off loss the night before to thump the host Oakland Athletics 7-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Gausman (5-4), who pitched the 2020 and 2021 seasons across the San Francisco Bay for the Giants, enjoyed a homecoming of sorts with the fifth win in his past six decisions. He allowed just five hits and one walk, striking out a season-high-tying 10.
The 33-year-old threw just the second complete game of his big-league career. The other was stopped after five innings in the Baltimore Orioles’ 3-1 win over the New York Yankees on July 13, 2014.
All 109 pitches Gausman threw on Saturday were with a lead, thanks to the Blue Jays scoring a first-inning run for the first time in their past 30 games.
Danny Jansen gave Toronto the lead for good with a sacrifice fly, an advantage the visitors took into the fifth before Kevin Kiermaier, batting ninth, launched his second homer of the season off A’s starter Luis Medina (0-1).
Making just his second major league start of the season, Medina then retired the next two Blue Jays before yielding consecutive doubles to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Jansen to make it 4-0.
Medina was gone after he walked Daniel Vogelbach, and Toronto completed its big inning at the expense of Jack O’Loughlin with an RBI single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a run-scoring wild pitch for a 6-0 cushion.
Medina was charged with six runs on five hits and five walks over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out one.
The Blue Jays completed the scoring in the ninth on an RBI single by Justin Turner, scoring Bichette, who had doubled for the second time.
Riding the momentum of JJ Bleday’s ninth-inning home run in a 2-1 win in the series opener on Friday, the A’s got just one baserunner to third base against Gausman. That came with two outs in the seventh, after which Tyler Soderstrom flied out.
Jansen joined Bichette with two hits for Toronto, which won for the third time in the past four days. Ernie Clement also had a double for the Blue Jays, giving them five to go along with Kiermaier’s homer among 10 total hits.
–Field Level Media
