The Toronto Blue Jays took home field to officially start the 2026 Major League Baseball season. Ace starting pitcher Kevin Gausman was tasked with kicking off the 2026 campaign, and he took the mound and delivered a gem in front of the home crowd.

The Blue Jays unveiled their American League Championship banner with pride and emotion. The moment was captured by 42,728 fans in the stands. Gausman took to the bump to start another mountain climb back to a postseason chase. This was Gausman’s first home opener start as a member of the Blue Jays. He’s opened before with the Orioles and the Giants, but this was his first with the Blue Jays.

How did he look to start the season?

Needless to say, Gausman was locked in, as he worked with his battery-pack mate, Alejandro Kirk, to deliver an Oscar performance in front of the Rogers Center crowd. The right-hander was loose, fluid, and repeatable in his outing. Structurally, Gausman appeared relaxed and completely locked in. He went six strong innings against the Athletics, only allowing one run on one hit.

The ace struck out the side in the first inning, adding to the electric vibe in the stadium. Two of those three batters struck out swinging on the splitter.  Gausman was rolling scoreless until he made one small mistake against Shea Langeliers in the fourth inning. Gausman left the splitter middle-in where it was turned on for 375-feet  and launched into the Blue Jays bullpen. This would be the only run allowed by the right-hander; he finished in the sixth inning, collecting a total of 11 strikeouts – a franchise record for a starter on Opening Day.

The Blue Jays ace threw 83 total pitches, 60 of them for strikes, while forcing four groundouts and three flyouts. He was sitting in the mid-90s with his fastball, and his splitter had tons of life on it, with the Athletics chasing it out of the strike zone on occasion. Gausman’s splitter was on point, showing good depth in its vertical drop, working at and below the knees. The command of this pitch was incredible and utilized well, while the fastball was also commanded well and established early. Kirk also did his part, stealing strikes behind the plate that had the Athletics thinking they were in the zone, even with the threat of the ABS challenge.

When the dust settled, Gausman went six total innings and put the club in a position to win, even if he didn’t get run support. The Jays would eventually rally in the bottom of the ninth inning after Langeliers took reliever Jeff Hoffman deep for his second shot of the game, but Gausman was on point throughout his start, keeping a pesky Athletics lineup at bay for most of the evening.

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