Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman concerned about lack of starting depth and latest wobbles
'It's something that we know. Everybody knows our depth isn't crazy. It's the guys that we have here. It's us. We've got to do it. We've got to put it together.'
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Kevin Gausman is well aware of the harsh challenges that face him and his fellow Blue Jays starters.
He’s well aware of the maddening inconsistencies with the team that have made the first 43 games of the season an ongoing battle to escape mediocrity.
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Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman concerned about lack of starting depth and latest wobbles Back to video
And Gausman also is mindful of the organizational shortcomings in being able to continually feed that rotation with healthy, major-league-ready arms.
In fact that last weakness, which could ultimately be the Jays undoing, is a point of conversation amongst a group that well into the season is still without a fifth starter.
“We definitely talk about it,” Gausman said after his most recent start on Thursday. “It’s something that we know. Everybody knows our depth isn’t crazy. It’s the guys that we have here. It’s us. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to put it together.”
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Gausman’s latest articulation of transparency came after he gave up six runs over 5.2 innings in an 8-3 loss to the Rays, dropping the Jays record to 21-22. The veteran righty has surrendered six in two of his past four outings, a wobble in his performance that is both atypical and doesn’t sit well with him.
“It just seems like my mistakes are really hurting me right now,” Gausman said. “If I make five in mistakes in a game, I feel like that’s five runs I’m giving up. So somehow I’ve got to find a way to go be better for this team.”
If Gausman is being a little hard on himself, it’s not without reason. He firmly believes that a team can only be as strong as its rotation, a view echoed by fellow veteran Chris Bassitt.
Left unsaid — and exacerbated — is the fact that, until recently, the Jays meek offensive attack allowed little margin of error for the team’s pitchers. It has been a tightrope on most nights, as tight games and early deficits seem commonplace.
“We haven’t been throwing the ball great the last last couple weeks … a lot of how we do this season is based on what our pitching staff can do,” Gausman said. “All the best teams I’ve been on that made the post-season, it’s because our (starters were) really good. You need to have a good offence and timely hitting to win ball games, but I think we are only as good as our pitchers.”
Circling back to Gausman’s accurate reference to the thinness of the rotation, left unsaid is the fear that the Jays are one injury away from potential disaster.
With Max Scherzer still weeks away from returning — at best — and a weekly shuffle for the fifth spot, that’s a lot of pressure on the veteran trio of Gausman, Bassitt and Jose Berrios.
WHO NEEDS LONG WEEKEND BASEBALL?
The Rogers Centre roof has been open for the first time this season, the Leafs are on the brink of elimination and a big holiday weekend of baseball in Toronto awaits.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
The idiocy of MLB schedule-makers has decreed that there will be no game in Toronto on Victoria Day — the traditional feel good start of the summer — even though Monday is in the middle of the Jays longest home stand of the season.
Meanwhile, should the Leafs indeed meet their demise, there’s about to be more sporting eyeballs on the Jays. What that group will see is a team that has lost six of its past eight series after dropping two of three to the Rays.
There have been signs of an ascent, sure, most recently a 5-1 stretch prior to Thursday’s loss. But the chronic inconsistencies mute momentum and often the feeling that it is ‘one step forward, one step back’ with this team.
TIGERS TOWN
The Jays longest home stand of the season doesn’t get any easier with the arrival of the Detroit Tigers for the first of three on Friday followed by three against the San Diego Padres beginning on Tuesday.
What stands out about those looming foes?
Excellent starts by both clubs have them in possession of two of the top three winning percentages in baseball. The Tigers are tops with at .659 (29-15) followed by the Dodgers (28-15, .651) and the Padres (27-15, .643.)
The Tigers will arrive at the Rogers Centre with the most wins in the majors and a comfortable 3.5-game lead in the suddenly stout AL Central, where all a 24-20 record gets the surging Minnesota Twins is fourth place.
“They’re playing really well, man,” Schneider said of his team’s next opponent. “They’re a good team. They’re well run. They grasp platoon advantages. They can pitch. I hope they got all their wins out of the way before they come here.
“We’re playing well, too. It sucks to lose the series at home. There’s a couple things we probably wish we could have done differently against Tampa.”
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