Last night, the Baltimore Orioles got shell-shocked and clipped by the Toronto Blue Jays, 12-6; however, the story of the night was centered on one guy: Kevin Gausman.
The offense did all it could, but the pitching was not there. Chris Davis hit his 15th homer, and Adam Jones and Nick Markakis hit back-to-back homers in the 8th. Nate McLouth had two hits, and Manny Machado had another multi-hit game, tallying three doubles.
Machado now has 21 doubles on the season – a ridiculous number this early. And for a guy who is only 20.
Now back, to Thursday’s starting pitcher for Baltimore…
Although Gausman ended up taking the loss; however, he clearly showed the fans a glimpse of why the Orioles selected him in last year’s draft — and the possibility of a bright future.
Looking at pitching line that Gausman put up, it was not that great and in a word – average. Then again, if you compare him to most of the Orioles starters out there, you saw one intangible that is god-given: velocity.
I was at a restaurant watching the game and saw Gausman uncork a 99-mph pitch. It was a ‘no way’ moment, but the radar gun caught it, and unlike most young pitchers, he had control of it. That is a positive note there.
He cruised through the first three innings, but gave up two runs in the fourth; however, he was able to work out a stick situation. His night ended in the fifth inning as he gave up a homer to J.P. Arencibia that gave the Blue Jays a 4-3 lead.
The Jays must have figured Gausman out the second time around the order. He was surely in a groove for the first three innings, but the Toronto batting lineup is pretty good, and they touched up the youngster thereafter.
Gausman will hopefully learn from last night’s experience and will build on it into his next start.
Then the game became a laugher from there. The Oriole bullpen got shelled, and that was it for them.
