Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Kevin Gausman answers questions during media day before Game 1 of the World Series at Rogers Centre on Friday. Gausman is set to take the mound for Game 2 on Saturday.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
Kevin Gausman has pitched in the big leagues for more than a dozen years for five different teams. On Saturday night, the right-hander will appear in the World Series for the first time when the Toronto Blue Jays face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second game of their best-of-seven series.
“Every year you go in with the hope that you are one of the last two teams playing, but that just hasn’t been the reality for me,” Gausman, 34, said as he addressed the media Friday afternoon at Rogers Centre. Toronto won the opener 11-4 in a contest that featured a nine-run rally in the sixth inning. “I’m just really excited for this group and for myself.
“It’s been a crazy ride, but now we are here and we’re excited to show the world what the Blue Jays are all about.”
Toronto won the American League championship to reach the World Series for the first time in more than three decades. Los Angeles is attempting to win its second in a row. If it accomplishes that, it will be first team to win consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees did it three times from 1998 through 2000.
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Gausman will get the start against right-handed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who went 12-8 during the regular season with 201 strikeouts and a 2.49 earned-run average. Gausman was 10-11 with 189 strikeouts and a 3.59 ERA. Both have been sharp this postseason.
“Whether it is a regular-season game, the playoffs or the World Series, I take every one as similarly as possible,” Yamamoto said through a translator. “Right now, I think I’m in a pretty good position mentally.”
Los Angeles should certainly feel that way as an organization. It has the sport’s marquee player in Shohei Ohtani, who has hit 109 home runs over the past two seasons and also possesses a 102-mile-per-hour fastball. He is the first player of his ilk since Babe Ruth.
Alongside him, the Dodgers have a lineup full of all-stars and strong pitching to boot. Following Saturday’s Game 2, the series will switch to Los Angeles for Games 3, 4 and 5 next week.
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Gausman signed a five-year deal with Toronto for US$110-million in late 2021. He has done well individually but has experienced only disappointment in the playoffs until this year.
“I looked at the Blue Jays roster at the end of the 2021 season and I believed they had the best offence in all of baseball,” he said. “I mean, that really was the reason I came here. It really excited me as a pitcher.
“The first couple years were rough and heartbreaking. To get swept back-to-back in the wild-card round was tough. Last year was even tougher because it felt like we were a really good team but didn’t play very well, and we all just kind of got punched in the face.”
The Blue Jays underachieved and finished in last place in the American League East. This season they improved by winning 20 more games and captured their first AL East title in 10 years. They have won the World Series twice, back to back in 1992 and 1993.
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“This is only my first World Series, but the two best teams that I’ve been on were the 2021 [San Francisco] Giants and this season.
“When I think about those teams, it just kind of got to a point where everybody believed. And that’s [the] feeling here, the belief in each other that no matter what the score is, no matter who we’re playing, we feel like we have a chance.”
Gausman was excited to get his first crack at pitching in the World Series and was almost equally happy about the return of Bo Bichette, with the Blue Jays all-star making his first start of the playoffs in Friday’s World Series opener. Bichette, who last played on Sept. 6 before he incurred a knee injury, had a single in his first at-bat and also walked in three plate appearances.
“I think there was a group of us that when we made the postseason went to Bo and said, ‘We’re doing everything we can to see you play again this year.’ So we’re just really happy that he’s able to be out there, and hat’s off to him.
“I’m really excited for Bo,” Gausman continued. “He has been a huge part of this organization for a long time. So if he wasn’t out there, I would be heartbroken for him.”