Gausman tosses first career complete-game shutout in Blue Jays' win

OAKLAND -- There were several close calls in the past, but for several reasons -- from weather to extra innings -- Kevin Gausman had yet to truly go the distance in his 12 years in the big leagues.

At last, everything lined up as Gausman twirled the first nine-inning shutout of his career in Saturday's 7-0 win over the A's. The 33-year-old right-hander was masterful on the mound, matching his season high with 10 strikeouts and holding opposing batters to five hits and one walk on 109 pitches.

"You don't see many of them anymore," Gausman said. "To get the first one in my career 10 years … after it started makes it that much more special."

Before Saturday, Gausman was credited with one complete game on July 13, 2014, as a member of the Orioles. But that game, a 3-1 win over the Yankees, was called after just five innings due to rain.

Gausman has now completed nine innings twice in his career, and as fate would have it, the first time was also at the Coliseum, on May 5, 2018. Still with the Orioles, Gausman tossed nine scoreless innings, only allowing two hits and two walks, but the A's walked it off in 12 innings.

There are several other factors that go into complete games that the starter can't control, including bullpen usage.

"I kind of have the old-school mentality where if I get through seven, like, let me go. I'll go to 120 [pitches] if you need me to," Gausman said. "But that's not the game anymore, and relievers now are so good that you almost want to give the ball to them."

Nate Pearson warmed up in the eighth and Zach Pop was ready to go in the ninth, just in case.

"It's hard to do, especially in today's game, I think, with the way bullpens are built," manager John Schneider said. "But you have a starter like him, and he's being efficient -- it's a pretty easy decision."

Although he was pitching like there was a slim lead on the line, Gausman had plenty of offense behind him, starting with the end of an unfortunate -- and quirky -- streak of scoreless opening frames for Toronto.

The Blue Jays went 29 games without scoring in the first inning, a stretch that began on May 5. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the second-longest such streak and just two shy of the all-time mark in a single season held by the 1937 Boston Bees (the Chicago White Sox also failed to score in 31 consecutive first innings from the end of '47 to the beginning of '48.)

After Danny Jansen's sacrifice fly drove in Spencer Horwitz in the first inning, Gausman was the first Toronto starter to enter a game with the lead in more than a month.

"Any time you have the lead, you feel like you have a little bit more wiggle room," said Gausman, who hadn't known about the streak until George Springer and several others in the dugout asked for the sac fly ball. "And so you can maybe throw a little bit more strikes, be even more on the attack."

And attack he did. After establishing his fastball early on, Gausman used his splitter to carve through Oakland's lineup, getting a season-high 13 whiffs on his signature offering.

“You expect a heater, and it just seems like he hides it really well," A's center fielder JJ Bleday said. "It’s almost like [Zack] Greinke where it all of a sudden just kind of shoots out. He was just throwing strikes early and getting quick outs. He kept us off base.”

Toronto's bullpen, which had been relatively taxed heading into the weekend series, has thrown just one pitch in the first two games -- which Bleday crushed into the right-field seats to walk off the Blue Jays on Friday, when Chris Bassitt turned in one of his best starts of the season with eight innings of one-run ball.

With Gausman's shutout, he and Bassitt became the first Blue Jays starters to toss eight innings on back-to-back days since Drew Hutchison and J.A. Happ on Aug. 6-7, 2014. Mark Buehrle and Aaron Sanchez also did it in back-to-back games, with an off-day in between, from June 3-5, 2015.

"I think that's one thing we did really well last year, was that healthy competitiveness between each other," Gausman said. "I definitely wanted to pitch better than he did yesterday, and he pitched great. That was going to be a tough ask, but it happened to work out."