The ballyhooed World Series rematch began with a dud as the Los Angeles Dodgers cruised to 14-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.
Now the Dodgers look to secure a series win at Rogers Centre and in order to do so will need to accomplish what no team has so far this season: solve Kevin Gasuman.
The right-hander allowed just one run and finished with 11 strikeouts over six innings in his Opening Day start. Gausman followed that with six scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies last week.
That made him the first pitcher since at least 1900 with 10 or more strikeouts and zero walks in both of their first two starts of a season.
According to researcher Sarah Langs, the only pitchers in MLB history with three such starts at any point of a season are Chris Archer (2015), Clayton Kershaw (2015 and 2016) and Gerrit Cole (2021).
Furthermore, Gausman’s 21 strikeouts in his first two starts were the most by a pitcher in Blue Jays franchise history. Overall, he now has 21 starts with at least 10 strikeouts. That ranks second in Blue Jays history, with only Roger Clemens’ 25 such performances ahead of Gausman.
Dodgers history vs. Kevin Gausman
Prior to his now-fourth season with the Blue Jays, Gausman spent two years with the San Francisco Giants. Thus, there’s some familiarity between the 35-year-old and Dodgers.
Gausman enters Tuesday’s start with a 2-3 record and 3.57 ERA in nine career games (eight starts) against the Dodgers. He’s additionally faced them four times in the postseason, making three starts. Those games are split evenly between the Giants and Blue Jays, and Gausman has allowed three runs or more in three of them.
Gausman’s last time facing the Dodgers was in Game 6 of the World Series. He allowed three runs and struck out eight over six innings in the Blue Jays’ 3-1 home loss.
“It should be a fun rematch. I think Kev’s outing kind of got overlooked because Yamamoto was so good in Game 2,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said before that game. “Kev kind of matched him pitch for pitch there until the seventh.
“You kind of think of it as, like, an old school pitchers’ duel about to happen, but you never know how it’s going to unfold. But we’ve got all the confidence in the world in Kev. He’s kind of been our guy for the last couple years. So he’s pitched in big games before, postseason, regular season, he’s always consistent, love handing him the ball tomorrow.”
Gausman’s team has lost each postseason game he’s pitched in against the Dodgers.
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