KANSAS CITY -- Kevin Gausman has been one of baseball’s more reliable starting pitchers over the past six years. During a season in which the Cubs have endured a litany of setbacks with their pitching staff, the kind of stability the veteran righty brings is much welcomed.
“You start to think about Kevin pitching every five days, it’s just a good feeling,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “How he goes about it. What he accomplishes. The innings that he covers. He puts your team, in general, in a good spot.”
Gausman spun seven solid innings in his Cubs debut on Friday night, guiding the North Siders to a 6-4 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The quality start turned in by the righty showed precisely why Chicago sent a pair of prospects to the Blue Jays in order to reel him in ahead of Monday’s Trade Deadline.
Here are three takeaways from Friday’s win:
1. Gausman’s quality debut
Cubs fans got a scare four batters into Gausman’s start when Royals slugger Salvador Perez sent a sharp comebacker off the pitcher’s lower right leg. The ball was deflected into right field for a single and both Counsell and a member of Chicago’s medical team went to the mound to check on their new starter.
Gausman fired a few warm-up pitches, shook off the play and continued on.
The next batter, Isaac Collins, delivered an RBI double, but Gausman soon settled into a rhythm. The right-hander held Kansas City to a 1-for-13 showing immediately after that hit, leading up to a solo homer by Carter Jensen in the fifth. Outside of those two breakthroughs, the Royals struggled to get much going off Gausman.
The seven innings logged by Gausman tied his season high and also tied the longest outing this year for a Cubs starter. He led with his splitter -- using it 51% of the time against the Royals, compared to 38% overall this year -- and ended with four strikeouts and seven groundouts.
2. Cubs’ two-out rally
Royals lefty Daniel Lynch IV had been used exclusively in a relief role this season until Friday night, when he opened a bullpen game for Kansas City. He recorded five outs -- his longest outing since July 18 -- but then ran into trouble against the Cubs’ offense with two outs in the second.
The North Siders have had a knack for two-out rallies all season long, too.
Entering play Friday, the Cubs led the National League with 221 runs scored with two outs and had the most plate appearances (1,473) in the Majors in such situations. Chicago’s .729 OPS with two outs ranked third in the NL and fifth overall. And they were at it again in Kansas City.
Carson Kelly and Pedro Ramírez came through with consecutive singles off Lynch, who then walked Dansby Swanson to load the bases. From there, Pete Crow-Armstrong reached via an RBI infield single -- and another run scored on the play with the help of a Royals error -- and Seiya Suzuki followed with a two-run single off reliever Jose Cuas.
3. Suzuki extends on-base streak
Suzuki sent a sinker from Cuas up the first-base line and into right field for his two-run single in the second inning. It not only delivered some key runs for the Cubs, but also extended the right fielder’s on-base streak to 25 games, which is the longest active run in the Majors. Suzuki ended the evening 2-for-5.
Over the course of those 25 games, dating back to July 8, Suzuki has produced a .306/.424/.571 slash line to go along with six home runs, eight RBIs, 24 RBIs and 19 walks (compared to 26 strikeouts) for the North Siders. The on-base streak is the longest such run of Suzuki’s career.