Tough second inning proves costly for Gausman, Blue Jays

ATLANTA -- Subtract the second inning, and Kevin Gausman had a fantastic game in Friday night’s 3-1 loss to the Braves at Truist Park.

He scattered three hits across the first and third-through-sixth innings, allowing no runs and sending the Braves down in order in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

But the bottom of the second was a doozy.

“Tough,” Gausman said of that frame. “I didn’t necessarily get hit around the ballpark, but like I said, that second-inning leadoff walk with some other things didn’t put myself in a position to have a good inning. I just couldn’t make that one good pitch when I needed to, four-seamer cutting a little bit.”

That leadoff walk to Jorge Soler, followed by a Travis d’Arnaud single, had Gausman laboring just two hitters into the inning. Jarred Kelenic singled through the right side to score Soler as the game’s first run and move d’Arnaud to third. Gausman struck out Orlando Arcia for the first out, but Kelenic stole second on the pitch.

Gio Urshela poked a looping liner into right field on an 0-2 pitch that was well outside, scoring d’Arnaud and moving Kelenic to third. Michael Harris II then beat out a grounder to allow Kelenic to score the third Braves run of the frame. Gausman then walked Whit Merrifield and Marcell Ozuna to load the bases, but Matt Olson, the ninth Brave to bat, flew out on the first pitch to the left-field warning track to end the inning.

“Right there with Olson, that was probably it for [Gausman] if he didn’t get him,” manager John Schneider said. “But he battled back and got six innings in. Just kind of a weird inning for him with the walks -- you don’t really see that too much from Kevin. I thought he came out with really good stuff in the first, and then a couple ground balls got through and the walks kind of hurt him. But he settled back in, and I thought he looked really good after that.”

All three of Gausman’s walks, three of the six hits he allowed, all three runs and 40 of his 109 pitches came in that frustrating second inning.

“There really was nothing different that I needed to do,” Gausman said of his approach, though he was disappointed in his command. “They just kind of found some holes. … If I can throw my fastball up and down in the zone when I need to, it makes my split really hard to lay off. That’s been the whole adjustment this year. I’m trying to find that mix, that magic number of what we were doing last year, to get back to being more consistent.”

Schneider considered Friday a continuation of Gausman’s consistency, particularly in delivery.

“I think his fastball has been good -- that’s kind of been the main point,” Schneider said. “I think he would’ve been even better tonight if he was getting it up in the zone as much as he had hoped to, with a couple misses down in the zone.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays offense struggled with runners on, reaching third base only thrice against the Braves. The first instance was Toronto’s lone run on the night, manufactured and unearned: Nathan Lukes began the third inning with a single to right; George Springer reached on an error; Daulton Varsho’s bouncer to first advanced Lukes to third, before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scored Lukes on a groundout to second.

The Blue Jays finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

“When you get chances, you got to cash in,” Schneider said. “I think the sixth inning there, Vlad and [Alejandro] Kirk get on, and [Max Fried] struck out the next three. So I think those were spots you got to take advantage of.”