OAKLAND, Calif. – Spencer Horwitz’s first start of the season didn’t exactly send the Toronto Blue Jays’ batting order into the blender, although putting him in the two-hole did lead to a number of corresponding changes.
Danny Jansen slid down to fifth, behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, followed by Daniel Vogelbach, subbing in for Justin Turner. With George Springer also off for a day-game-after-night, Daulton Varsho slid over to right field for the first time since Sept 25, 2022, and batted seventh.
The intent with Horwitz’s placement in a new mix?
“It allows a lot of different things,” explained manager John Schneider. “Keeping Vlad and Bo kind of where they are at three and four, want to do that. Getting his kind of at-bat in the middle there after (Davis Schneider). And then it allows us to be a little bit versatile as the game goes on with guys on the bench. You don’t want to say you’re going to hit exactly like you did at triple-A in the big leagues, but he’s in a really good spot right now. So when you’re calling guys up who are rolling, you want to try to take advantage of it and it gets Jano down there to hopefully drive in some runs, too.”
Checkmarks across the board, as the Blue Jays ended a near historic streak of first innings without scoring at 29 games when Horwitz came home on Jansen’s sacrifice fly, before a five-run fifth made for a rare blowout in a Saturday’s 7-0 thumping of the Oakland Athletics.
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The outburst helped Kevin Gausman’s first career nine-inning complete game, the way Chris Bassitt’s eight innings of one-run ball Friday night wasn’t, while giving the relief crew a low-leverage afternoon ahead of a bullpen game Sunday.
The 33-year-old allowed just five hits and a walk while striking out 10, needing just 109 pitches in the masterful outing. He recorded a five-inning complete game against the Yankees in a rain-shortened affair on July 13, 2014, while Bassitt threw the previous nine-inning complete game for the Blue Jays last May 12 against Atlanta.
While Zach Pop was warming in the ninth just in case, Gausman made everything easy on Schneider, who described the approach to the finale as “still in the planning phase” before the game. He was aiming to avoid using at least one of Trevor Richards and Bowden Francis on Saturday and as the day played out, it was pretty clear they weren’t going to be needed.
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A deliberate approach against Luis Medina, the Athletics starter with erratic command, helped key the outburst, even if it took the Blue Jays a while to open things up.
During their pre-game meetings, the club stressed forcing the right-hander to the middle of the zone and their discipline paid off in the first, when Horwitz, Guerrero and Bichette earned walks before Jansen sent a fastball just off the inner edge of the plate to the track in left to break the first-inning drought.
But their breakthrough didn’t come until the fifth, when Kevin Kiermaier led off the inning by hammering a middle-up fastball over the wall in left to double the advantage, consecutive doubles by Guerrero, Bichette and Jansen made it 4-0, an Isiah Kiner Falefa single brought home another run and Vogelbach capped the rally by scoring on a passed ball.
Such high-damage innings have been a rarity for the Blue Jays this season.
Gausman, meanwhile, turned the page on a rough outing against the Baltimore Orioles earlier this week, when he gave up three homers and six runs on six hits in 6.1 innings, with the most dominant version of his splitter keeping the A’s swinging through air.
The Athletics swung at the pitch 25 times, missing it 14, fouling it off six times, singling twice, flying out twice and grounding out once.
