LOS ANGELES -- The biggest moment of Kevin Gausman’s baseball life is waiting for him back in Toronto, a Game 6 start with a shot to win the World Series.
Not since Dave Stewart took the mound at SkyDome on Oct. 23, 1993, has a Blue Jays pitcher had a moment like this in front of him. The Blue Jays, fresh off a 6-1 win at Dodger Stadium behind one of the greatest starts in this organization’s history from rookie Trey Yesavage, turn from their surprise star to the man who’s been the ace all along.
It’s Gausman with the World Series on the line? They wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It always feels good to give Kev the ball,” manager John Schneider said after the Game 5 win. “This was a big performance from a lot of different people individually and collectively as a team. This was a very, very good team win. But to give the ball to Kev, you love it. You love it every time, whether it's in Spring Training or whether it's in the World Series.”
The shift back to Rogers Centre will be welcomed. The Blue Jays played to a 54-27 record at home this season, and even while they have been on the road at Dodger Stadium, their home in Toronto has been packed for viewing parties. Home-field advantages can be difficult to measure, but the Blue Jays’ is real.
“Rogers Centre is going to be fun. It's going to be electric,” Gausman said. “It's going to be everything that it has been for the last month and probably more. We're excited to get back there. Obviously, we're really good at home, so we feel confident playing in front of our own team. The fans there have been awesome, especially lately. They bring the energy, they pick us up when we need it.”
In Gausman’s first career World Series appearance in Game 2, he held the Dodgers to three runs on four hits over 6 2/3 innings and may have looked even better than the line suggests. Home runs from Will Smith and Max Muncy in the seventh inning wrecked an otherwise excellent outing from Gausman, but when you’re facing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, there’s nearly no room for error.
Therein lies the great challenge of Friday night in Toronto. Gausman is not only going up against one of the best lineups in the sport -- led by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman -- he’s also being held to the standard of Yamamoto. Gausman is a great pitcher in his own right, but he’s going to need some help from the Blue Jays’ batters.
“[Yamamoto] is a really good pitcher. You never know what he's going to do the next time around,” said Davis Schneider, an early star in Game 5 with his first-pitch homer. “He might pitch the same, he might pitch differently. But he has really good stuff, he's a smart pitcher and hopefully we can get to him early on and make him throw some pitches, then get to the bullpen and do what we've been doing all year with starting pitchers.”
Gausman, on the other hand, is an uncomplicated pitcher. There’s no intricate game plan, no mystifying pitch mix and no javelins being thrown in the outfield to warm up. Gausman is going to throw his best stuff at you and bet on himself, every damn time.
Yesavage’s splitter baffled the Dodgers’ hitters in Game 5, and that’s the same pitch Gausman will lean heavily on in Game 6. It’s important that these are different genres of splitters, though, which should eliminate any worry that Dodgers hitters will be geared up or “used to” that specific pitch after seeing Yesavage so recently.
"I think just the angle,” said the Dodgers’ Tommy Edman. “It's mainly the angle that's the biggest difference. Yesavage's is more straight downhill, both the splitter and the slider. And then Gausman is more of a traditional arm slot. The splitter is very deceptive as well.”
This is Gausman’s shot at history now. It was Stewart in 1993 and David Cone in '92 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, where the Blue Jays beat the Braves in 11 innings, and that’s the type of outing the Blue Jays need from Gausman. That night, Cone gave the Blue Jays six innings of one-run ball.
It’s Game 6 of the World Series, and the Blue Jays are one win away. Gausman, the ace, is on the mound in Toronto. If you’d heard this seven months ago, would you have believed a word?
It’s here, and the ball is where it belongs, in Gausman’s right hand.