Gausman, Blue Jays shut down Red Sox
BOSTON — When Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman comes to Fenway Park, he knows how well he’s pitching by the playlist. “If you’re still in the game when they’re singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ in the eighth inning, you’ve done something right,” Gausman said after taking a shutout into the ninth to beat the Boston Red Sox 3-2 on Thursday.
“That’s what I remember about the last time that I pitched really well here,” said Gausman, who spent the first 61⁄2 seasons of his career in the AL East in Baltimore. “It was being out there while they’re playing that song.”
Gausman (1-1) struck out eight and walked none before allowing a leadoff single to Trevor Story to lead off the ninth. Jordan Romano relieved him and walked one and gave up an RBI double to Xander Bogaerts, then retired the next three batters to earn his seventh save.
In a season when Clayton Kershaw was pulled from a perfect game because of a pitch count — and Japanese League pitcher Roki Sasaki was taken out of what could have been his second straight perfect game — Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said he was happy to let Gausman go for his first career shutout.
“I gave him a chance, hitter by hitter. If he would have gotten the first guy, then he would have gotten (to pitch to) the next guy,” Montoyo said. “Everybody knew that that was our game plan. We were going to give him a chance to finish it. But then it’s not going to be fair to bring Romano on with two on.”
Gausman allowed seven hits in all — all singles — and allowed only one runner to reach second base. After Story singled to lead off the ninth, Romano walked Rafael Devers and gave up an RBI double to Xander Bogaerts.
Devers scored on Alex Verdugo’s groundout, then Bobby Dalbec hit a hard groundout to third against a drawn-in infield and Bogaerts had to return to the bag. Romano got Jackie Bradley Jr. on a brokenbat groundout to first.