Gausman's signature steadiness sets scene for Blue Jays' walk-off

TORONTO -- There’s something soothing about the days Kevin Gausman pitches.

Before Daulton Varsho sent Rogers Centre into a frenzy with a walk-off single against the Mariners in the 10th inning, it was Gausman who kept the door locked on the visitors for seven innings. It’s not just what Gausman does, but how he does it.

It all starts hours before the game, when the usual clubhouse mix takes a trip back in time. Sometimes on the road, you’ll hear Fleetwood Mac, with “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” setting the mood. Other days are Led Zeppelin days, as “Stairway to Heaven” and “D’yer Mak’er” ring out in a room they’re rarely heard in. When Gausman took the mound before Saturday’s 1-0 win over the Mariners, Pink Floyd’s “Money” echoed through Rogers Centre.

All that’s missing from this mid-70s scene is the shag carpet and some wood paneling on the basement walls.

Then, the game starts, and Gausman turns into a buzzsaw. On Saturday, he set a new career high with 13 strikeouts, dominating Seattle in ways both expected and unexpected. Some Mariners joined the long line of MLB hitters to be turned inside out by his famous splitter. Others, looking for that same splitter, stood and stared as his fastball blurred by and kissed the edge of the plate, touching 97 mph a half-dozen times.

Gausman has now struck out 24 over 14 shutout innings in his last two starts. What’s working better? He’d love to know.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Gausman said with the serene smile he wears after wins. “They’re swinging at it? Sometimes they don’t swing at it? It kind of starts with command. If I can pound the zone with my fastball, then they’re expecting me to throw strikes and that’s why they swing at the split.”

The calm before the storm of a Gausman start is usually by design. It’s not all his doing, as John Schneider, George Springer and others “do some deliberate things that may seem weird,” as the manager puts it, but it all feels quintessentially Gausman.

If that movie Vladimir Guerrero Jr. teased in the spring of 2022 ever gets made, Gausman will be played by a long-haired Matthew McConaughey, grinning and dropping bits of wisdom as the story swirls around him.

It’s Gausman’s steady personality and professionalism, as much as his talent on the mound, that makes him such a beautiful fit in this rotation. Ahead of a recent start, Schneider was asked how valuable Gausman’s presence is to balance out some of the “young energy” in the clubhouse.

“The shirtless Manoahs?” Schneider said with a grin. “I think it is [valuable]. They’re a tight-knit group and it’s awesome to have different stuff, different personalities in the rotation. We don’t want to take away from what makes guys good, but it’s good for guys to see how Kevin goes about it or how [Chris] Bassitt goes about it. It’s different.”

Nobody has Gausman’s splitter, though. He’s built a career on this pitch, and the 20 whiffs he got with the splitter on Saturday were the most swings and misses on a single pitch by anyone in 2023. No pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) has had more whiffs with a splitter, breaking an old tie between he and Shohei Ohtani at 18.

“His fastball, it looks identical to [the splitter] coming out of the hand, and that's really the trouble with it all,” said the Mariners’ Tom Murphy. “It'd be different if it had some loose spin or something like that you could pick up on, but it doesn't. Kudos to him. He's got a fantastic pitch.”

In 2022, Gausman had some of the worst batted-ball luck a starting pitcher has experienced in the history of baseball. If he were to roll his eyes on the mound or pop off in a postgame interview, we’d all nod and understand, but keeping a level head isn’t just a personality trait for Gausman. It’s what makes him a great pitcher, too.

“He’s cerebral. He’s very monotonous about what he’s doing, starting in the clubhouse and the weight room. He’s right here,” Schneider said, holding out a steady hand. “There could be 40,000 screaming fans or 10,000 in Kansas City, and he’s right there. It really plays into his game. There’s nothing too big for him and he pumps up when he needs to.”

You could see that fire from Gausman after any of his 13 strikeouts, but when he’s surrounded by media following the Blue Jays’ sixth straight win, you see that same, laid-back Gausman again, and a completely different playlist pumps out of the clubhouse behind him.