TORONTO -- Kevin Gausman made history in signature fashion Monday, notching his 2,000th career strikeout in front of a home crowd at Rogers Centre in the Blue Jays' 8-5 loss to the Rays.
The big moment came in the fourth inning. After battling through some early struggles, Gausman worked a two-strike count and whiffed Tampa’s catcher, Hunter Feduccia, with a low fastball for his third strikeout of the game, surpassing the milestone mark.
While Gausman took the loss with his 4 2//3-inning outing, as he gave up seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits, his five punchouts to reach the sought-after mark gave him something for which to be proud.
Play briefly paused as Gausman tossed the baseball to the dugout, the crowd roaring as it rose for a standing ovation. With a modest grin, the right-hander patted his glove a few times, waved to the fans, and went right back to work.
It was a brief but well-deserved moment for a veteran of Gausman’s caliber. The right-hander is now in his 14th Major League season and entered Monday standing sixth among active pitchers with 1,997 strikeouts before reaching the 2,000-strikeout milestone. Ahead of him are Justin Verlander (3,554), teammate Max Scherzer (3,499), Chris Sale (2,635), Gerrit Cole (2,251) and Yu Darvish (2,075).
What makes Gausman’s run even more impressive is that his best seasons have come later in his career, after he reinvented himself into a strikeout ace. Following early struggles and multiple stops, Gausman leaned into a devastating splitter in late 2019, parlaying that breakthrough into a deal with the Giants and, eventually, a five-year, $110-million contract with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2022 season.
Gausman has also left a lasting impression within the AL East, where he began his career with parts of six seasons in Baltimore before later joining Toronto for what is now his fifth season with the Blue Jays. Asked about Gausman pregame, Rays manager Kevin Cash offered high praise for the rival right-hander.
“You could argue that his body of work over the last five, six years, he's at the top of the list," said Cash, who has managed the Rays since 2015. "For a guy that has five, six years of 30-plus starts, that's saying something. It's 30 quality starts every year."
While the 3,000-strikeout club remains a far tougher milestone, Gausman has already secured his place among this generation’s most dependable starters, as grabbing his 2,000th strikeout further etches his name in the record books.