TORONTO — On a day the Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching depth became thinner, the club’s best starter endured his worst outing of the season.
Kevin Gausman, the metronome right-hander who’s enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign, bobbled a comebacker from Tampa Bay Rays leadoff man Chandler Simpson to open the game and everything pretty much spun downhill from there.
Gausman went on to surrender three runs in that first inning and never found his footing in what was an 8-5 loss in front of 39,336 at Rogers Centre.
Blue Jays shortstop Andres Gimenez homered twice and drove in five runs, but the offence couldn’t muster much else as the club fell to 18-23 and 9.5 games back of the division-leading Rays. After completing a sweep last week at Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay has won all four meetings between the teams this season.
The loss compounded what was already a hectic day for the Blue Jays. On Monday afternoon, the club placed outfielder Addison Barger on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation and designated left-hander Eric Lauer for assignment, a surprising yet understandable transaction that removed a piece from the Blue Jays’ shrinking rotation picture.
Lauer, who was hailed within the clubhouse as one of the team’s MVPs last year for his contributions that steadied the starting staff amidst injury, had been largely ineffective this season while dealing with a decrease in velocity. He allowed six runs after coming in as the bulk reliever in Sunday’s loss to the Angels and saw his ERA balloon to 6.69.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Lauer was surprised by the decision but noted it was based on results.
“Just felt like we needed to go in a different direction,” Schneider told reporters Monday afternoon. “That was it. So, those conversations suck. Baseball’s hard. We get it. Hopefully he can get back to the stuff being where it was last year.”
The Blue Jays took Lauer to arbitration in the off-season, and the left-hander was vocal in April about his displeasure with being used behind an opener, yet Schneider said he didn’t think those factors impacted Lauer’s performance.
“We talked about that pretty openly with him and whether it was arbitration or contract or role, whatever it was, we stayed in front of it with him,” said Schneider. “You’d like to think it wouldn’t affect a guy going out there, but you never know how guys are feeling when they’re either out there or in between. I hope that wasn’t part of it.
“I think that this business is this business, and if it doesn’t go your way, you got to be a big boy and move on and go out and compete,” continued the manager. “So, I think we were just focused on the stuff and the results, but I don’t think it affected him too much. That wasn’t what he was telling us.”
Where that leaves the Blue Jays’ rotation right now is unclear. Complicating matters is that Max Scherzer’s right thumb issues have resurfaced and will require a cortisone shot, while the club is expecting news about Jose Berrios on Tuesday following his visit with Dr. Keith Meister.
Shane Bieber is progressing in his recovery, but a return isn’t close. That leaves Spencer Miles, who handled the first three innings on Sunday, as an option to start, while Schneider said triple-A right-handers Chad Dallas and CJ Van Eyk could potentially be in the mix.
Gausman, meanwhile, endured a 28-pitch first inning that began with Simpson’s comebacker to the mound. Gausman bobbled the ball and gave chase to it awkwardly, leading to a visit from John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral.
Simpson later scored on a sacrifice fly from Jonathan Aranda and the Rays added two more runs on Richie Palacios’s single through the right side.
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The Rays added two more in the second inning on an RBI triple from Taylor Walls and a broken-bat, run-scoring single by Jonathan Aranda, who later added a solo homer.
In total, Gausman allowed a season-high seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits over 4.2 innings, walking none and striking out five. It was his shortest start of the campaign and snapped a streak of nine straight games in which Blue Jays starters allowed three earned runs or fewer.
One positive for the 14-year veteran was that he notched his 2,000th career strikeout in the fourth inning and received a standing ovation from the crowd. By the end of his outing, he had increased the tally to 2,002, which is 90th all-time.