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Blue Jays: Back-to-back clunkers are a rarity for Kevin Gausman
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Photo credit: Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images
Evan Stack
Jun 29, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 29, 2026, 04:29 EDT
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The list of things that have gone awry for the Toronto Blue Jays over the past couple of weeks is starting to lengthen, but one of the parties responsible hasn’t been in this kind of spotlight since he joined the club. That would be veteran starter Kevin Gausman, who has allowed 17 hits and 13 earned runs over his previous two starts, which have only combined for eight innings total.
Posting a clunker now and then isn’t uncommon for Gausman – or for many starting pitchers, for that matter. Before this season, Gausman had allowed six or more earned runs in a start 10 times since 2022. Putting those starts past him, and course correcting has been one of Gausman’s strengths, however. None of those 10 starts were posted consecutively, and he’s posted a 5-1 record with a 0.95 ERA in the starts following.
Following his start last Thursday against the Rangers, Blue Jays manager John Schneider spoke to reporters about Gausman’s struggles between his last two starts.
“I think the one in Chicago was just lack of command, really,” Schneider said. “I don’t think it’s a common denominator. I think they’re different games in terms of walks and command and things like that and not really having it from the get-go. Kev’s a fly-ball pitcher. When he’s getting his fastball up at the top rail and the bottom rail, I think that’s when he limits some damage with the split too. I think the last couple starts, he hasn’t been able to get to the top and bottom and that’s his game.”
To Schneider’s point, Gausman’s start at Wrigley Field on June 19th was a classic case of poor command. He lasted just two innings, allowing seven hits, seven earned runs, three strikeouts, and four walks, the most in a start since his Canada Day last year. The first inning was the worst of the two frames he pitched; that’s where he allowed all of his earned runs and walks, and he threw only 19 strikes out of 44 pitches.
Gausman walked Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman to open the game, with just two strikes being thrown in his first 10 pitches. A few batters later, he had walked Ian Happ and Matt Shaw also on another 10 pitches. Aside from Shaw, the misses were below the strike zone, giving merit to the saying, “If it’s low, let it go. If it’s high, let it fly.” When he did get a pitch up, Seiya Suzuki (two-run double) and Carson Kelly (grand slam) didn’t miss it.
With his fastball sitting at 92.7 mph and his splitter at 83.5 mph, his velocities weren’t straying away from his season averages.  The Cubs weren’t fooled by much Gausman had to offer, and when he had to put it in the strike zone, they made him pay.
Gausman’s command was better last Thursday against Texas, but he was done in by the home run ball and mistake pitches. He was able to go six innings, allowing ten hits, six earned runs, four strikeouts, and two walks.
He gave up three home runs, one of which came in the first at-bat of the game after an 11-pitch battle with Joc Pederson. He saw all three of Gausman’s pitches during the AB, and Gausman eventually left a fastball over the plate.
One of the biggest talking points postgame was the use of Gausman’s slider, the pitch that he threw twice during a 3rd inning at-bat against Wyatt Langford. Langford whiffed at the first slider, but he took the second one into the left field seats for a three-run homer. Gausman’s slider was something that Sportsnet colour analyst Joe Siddall and co-host of Blair and Barker, Kevin Barker, both questioned, with Barker suggesting throwing it was a joint decision between Gausman and catcher Alejandro Kirk.
“I think that has more to do with the catcher than it does Kevin. Kevin’s not a shaker. Most of the time, he’s going to call what button’s pushed,” Barker said on that night’s episode of Blue Jays Talk. “How do you stay away from damage against that pitch? That, for me, is something they got to go back to the [drawing] board. Maybe you eliminate it for a while. Maybe you’re just a two-pitch guy. Work more up-to-down, right? The fastball up, the split-finger down. When you do those two things, most of the time, you’re the Kevin that we all love.”
Barker also pointed out that Langford has struggled against offspeed pitches this year (.211 average, 421 slugging percentage), suggesting that the splitter would’ve been the better pitch in that scenario. Not only did Gausman throw him the slider, but he threw it twice in a row.
Siddall doubled down on that take during the live broadcast, saying that, when Gausman throws the slider, it has to end up in the left-handed batter’s box.
The criticism of the slider isn’t just anecdotal – the numbers back it up. He’s giving up a .333 batting average, 1.095 slugging percentage, and five home runs against that pitch this season. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, he’s also allowed five home runs off of his four-seamer, but he’s thrown that pitch over five times more often. It probably doesn’t help to consider that the grand slam he allowed in his start against the Cubs was also off a slider!
All told, Gausman doesn’t need an overhaul. He’s largely been a two-pitch pitcher for several years, and he’s certainly been through his ups and downs in the big leagues. These are uncharted waters for him, so there are plenty of reasons to believe he will figure this out.

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