It was a pitching duel between the Houston Astros and the Toronto Blue Jays, with Hunter Brown and Kevin Gausman going toe to toe for the first game of the series.

Brown started the game off by striking out Bo Bichette and getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander to groundout and pop out, respectively. Gausman walked Altuve, but the runner was erased on a great play from left fielder Alan Roden. With Yordan Alvarez at the plate, Altuve took off for second, but Alvarez popped up to Roden, and the rookie tossed a laser to first base to double up the runner. Isaac Paredes would ground out to finish the frame.

George Springer produced a leadoff single off Brown to start the second inning, and he quickly stole second base, his third steal of the year. The veteran outfielder also took third base without a throw, putting the runner on third without an out. Brown would bounce back by striking out Andres Gimenez and Alejandro Kirk for two outs, and Ernie Clement would fly out to right to strand the base hit, another wasted opportunity that plagued the Jays in the previous Seattle series.

Gausman allowed another single to lead off the second inning to Jeremy Pena and notched his first strikeout shortly after to get one out on the board. Pena stole second, but the runner would be stranded with Gausman able to get out of the inning unscathed via a groundout and by punching out prospect Cam Smith.

There was no scoring action until the bottom of the fifth inning when the bottom of the Astros’ order got to Gausman, and three runs were quickly on the board thanks to doubles for Zach Dezenzo and Jose Altuve. An RBI single for Paredes would make it 4-0, and Gausman would finally escape the inning thanks to a Jeremy Pena double play.

Brown was dealing from start to finish in his outing, striking out nine batters through seven scoreless innings, extending his streak to 24 innings without allowing a run.

Josh Walker would come in for the Blue Jays in the bottom of the seventh, with Dezenzo collecting a one-out double to left field and later scoring to give the Astros a 5-0 lead.

Forrest Whitely took over for Brown, but the Blue Jays were unable to buy a run, even after Addison Barger was inserted into the lineup to pinch hit for Myles Straw. Walker also allowed two more runs in the top of the eighth, making it a 7-0 game.

Toronto couldn’t muster anything from their offense, producing just two hits and one walk on the day, and has now lost their third game in a row. Kevin Gausman earns the loss, seeing his ERA climb to 3.16 after allowing four earned runs through six innings.

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