NEW YORK ¨C Patience is the key to success when one is in the batter¡¯s box. In the first game of Sunday¡¯s doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees made it a grind for right-hander Kevin Gausman in an 11-2 victory over the Blue Jays.
During the first two innings, Gausman had an easy time on the mound by throwing 18 pitches and was staked to a 1-0 lead. By inning No. 3, however, Gausman had a tough time finding the plate, walking five batters and throwing 53 pitches to tie a Toronto franchise record for most offerings in a single frame.
With the bases loaded and one out, Cody Bellinger sent Oswaldo Cabrera home with a sacrifice fly and tied the score at 1. After Paul Goldschmidt followed by drawing a walk to reload the bases, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was given a free pass to first base, allowing Ben Rice to score the go-ahead run.
After Anthony Volpe brought in Aaron Judge with another walk, Austin Wells cleared the bases with a double to make it a 6-1 game. Gausman was then taken out of the game in favor of right-hander Paxton Schultz, who managed to stop the bleeding.
¡°I just didn't throw enough strikes,¡± Gausman said. ¡°I got ahead of a lot of guys and I felt like I couldn't throw my split, so there were a lot of fastballs. To walk five guys in one inning with 53 pitches is not ideal, especially the first game of a doubleheader, so I really put my pitching staff in a not great spot.
¡°When you try to get to 100 pitches and you throw [53] of them in one inning, that¡¯s pretty crazy. 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.¡±
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was impressed by what he saw from his team in the third.
¡°Outstanding,¡± Boone said. ¡°Just really good, disciplined at-bats. If you start chasing Gausman at all, he¡¯s too good. You have to be disciplined in that inning.¡±
As Wells entered the batter¡¯s box, he felt as though Gausman was close to the end of his outing.
¡°He was trying to be aggressive to me. I [was doing the same],¡± Wells said.
The bottom of the third inning lasted more than 30 minutes, but it didn¡¯t have any aftereffects on left-hander Max Fried, who pitched six solid innings and allowed one run. Fried didn¡¯t spend time watching the offense explode on Gausman, instead staying loose underneath the dugout by throwing some balls against the wall. Fried knew what to do after experiencing similar circumstances during the second game of the season, when the Yankees pounded the Brewers, 20-9, on March 29.
¡°I just wanted to be aggressive and try to get us to the dugout as quickly as possible,¡± Fried said.
Fried continues to be the early frontrunner for the American League Cy Young Award, winning his Major League-leading fifth game of the season. His ERA now stands at 1.43.
¡°There are so many different ways he can beat you within a certain game,¡± Boone said. ¡°So depending on what he has that day, he can lean on a lot of different things. It was a little bit of a grind for him early, but he is hard to square up. When he starts getting in the strike zone consistently, he is going to make it tough on you.¡±