'Not ideal': 53-pitch frame sinks Gausman, Blue Jays in finale

NEW YORK -- Kevin Gausman just kept throwing … and throwing … and throwing.

Gausman’s 53 pitches in the third inning of Sunday’s Game 1 loss during a doubleheader against the Yankees tied a Blue Jays franchise record. Only Woody Williams (1998) had thrown that many pitches in a single inning, but it was clear that Gausman didn’t think he should have needed that many.

On the way out of the game, Gausman was ejected by home-plate umpire Chris Conroy, an unsurprising end after Gausman has disagreed with multiple calls through the early innings. In the top of the fifth, manager John Schneider was ejected by Conroy, too. Schneider stormed out of the dugout after getting tossed to make sure Conroy knew exactly how he felt about the matter.

The scene captured how the whole day felt for the Blue Jays, beginning with an 11-2 loss and ending with another, 5-1, to drop them to 13-15 in April after what had been such an encouraging start to the month.

Gausman’s inning was stunning to watch, particularly in an era when pitch counts and workloads are so intentionally managed. It was the most pitches thrown in a single inning of an MLB game since Cameron Vieaux of the Pirates threw 56 for the Pirates on July 21, 2022, and it blew away Gausman’s previous career high of 44, which he did in 2017 with the Orioles.

“When you try to get to 100 pitches and you throw [53] of them in one inning, that’s pretty crazy,” Gausman said. “I don’t even think I’ve been close to that. Not ideal. Your stuff is definitely going to waver at that point in time. I thought I did a good job of trying to get some time, throwing some balls out and trying to get myself more time, but I just couldn’t make an adjustment.”

The final pitch Gausman threw broke the game wide open. Austin Wells took the ninth pitch he saw from Gausman and ripped a double into the right-center gap, clearing the bases for three runs to put the Yankees up, 6-1.

“For a guy like Kevin, you get to 35 in an inning, or 40, and it’s OK. I know it was 44 before the [Austin] Wells at-bat, and I didn’t expect a nine-pitcher there,” Schneider explained.

“That was basically the worst possible outcome. Could have gotten him a hitter before. Wanted to leave it right there with him. Didn’t work out.”

What makes this inning even more unlikely? It started with a popout on the very first pitch.

Gausman’s inning, by the batter:

Jasson Dominguez: Popout (1 pitch)
Oswaldo Cabrera: Walk (7 pitches)
Ben Rice: Walk (6 pitches)
Aaron Judge: Single (3 pitches)
Cody Bellinger: Sac fly (8 pitches)
Paul Goldschmidt: Walk (6 pitches)
Jazz Chisholm: Walk (4 pitches)
Anthony Volpe: Walk (9 pitches)
Austin Wells: Double (9 pitches)

Schneider says the Blue Jays’ decision to leave Gausman in came down to a few factors, which starts with the fact he needed just 18 pitches to get through the first two innings. This was Game 1 of a doubleheader, too, with an off-day scheduled for Monday, which also played into their thinking.

There’s obviously a physical toll to this, though. Pitch No. 53 didn’t feel nearly as lively as Gausman’s first pitch of the inning, and even for a guy who’s been around for a while and thrown 1,752 MLB innings, this was a real challenge.

“It’s a lot. If you have a 30-pitch inning, that can be a lot,” Gausman said, “and it didn’t happen quickly. That was a long inning with a lot of pitches, obviously. There were a lot of deep counts, a lot of foul balls. I don’t know how many foul balls they hit that inning, but it was 20, probably, 15? You’ve kind of got to give them credit, but I obviously wasn’t very good today.”

Gausman’s ejection as he left the mound didn’t exactly change his day, given that it had already ended, but it was clear that the veteran right-hander wasn’t happy. Not only did he have a few missed strikes in mind from his pitches, but he felt that Yankees starter Max Fried was getting called strikes on low pitches that weren’t being called for him. Cameras caught Gausman slipping down the top step of the second set of dugout stairs as he exited, but after a quick smile, he said he was OK.

“As I was coming off the mound, I kind of let [Conroy] know I was going to watch his bad umpiring inside,” Gausman said, then paused for a moment. “Didn’t see the stairs.”