NEW YORK — Blue Jays veteran starter Kevin Gausman was cruising through the Yankees’ first eight batters of the game on Sunday afternoon.
Other than an Anthony Volpe double with two outs in the second, Gausman was carving the Yankees up, inducing weak contact and pitching efficiently.
But after a first-pitch pop-out from Jasson Domínguez in the third, everything unraveled for Gausman, allowing the Yankees to storm in front and never look back in a 11-2 win, the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees scored six runs in that third frame against the right-hander. Gausman walked five of the next seven hitters he faced after getting Domínguez, throwing a whopping 53 pitches in the frame. His final pitch of the afternoon was a bases-clearing double off the wall in right-center field from catcher Austin Wells, a swing that put the Yankees in front 6-1.
Gausman and Toronto’s dugout weren’t happy with how home plate umpire Chris Conroy was calling balls and strikes. Moments after Gausman got back to the dugout, pulled with two outs and six runs in, he was tossed. Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ejected later in the game as well.
The runs kept flowing for the Yankees in the fifth, courtesy of the bottom of the order. Volpe swatted his fifth home run of the season, an opposite-field shot over the short porch. The shortstop entered play 8-for-57 (.140) over his previous 17 games. Wells then cracked his second double of the day and after a walk from Domínguez, both scampered home on a double down the right-field line from No. 9 hitter Oswaldo Cabrera.
First baseman Paul Goldschmidt added an RBI double of his own in the bottom of the sixth, plating Cody Bellinger who started the inning with a walk. The Yankees walked a grand total of eight times in the blowout win.
Yankees ace Max Fried settled into a groove on the mound, pitching six innings of one-run ball to earn the win. He’s now 5-0 this season with a 1.43 ERA, the sixth-lowest ERA of any qualified pitcher in MLB as of Sunday afternoon.
NOTABLE
— Ben Rice moved to catcher for the top of the ninth inning, his second appearance behind the plate of his big-league career. He was back there for one inning in a blowout win over the Blue Jays up in Toronto last summer.
— Yerry De Los Santos and Tyler Matzek both made their season debuts in relief. De Los Santos tossed two scoreless frames. Matzek gave up one earned run in the top of the ninth.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sunday: Yankees vs. Blue Jays, approximately 30 minutes after Game 1, YES/MLB Network. RHP Clarke Schmidt (0-1, 7.45) vs. RHP Chris Bassitt (2-1, 1.88)
Monday: Yankees at Orioles, 6:35 p.m., YES. RHP Will Warren (1-0, 4.79) vs. TBA
Tuesday: Yankees at Orioles, 6:35 p.m., YES. LHP Carlos Rodón (3-3, 3.50) vs. TBA
Wednesday: Yankees at Orioles, 6:35 p.m., Amazon. RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-1, 5.26) vs. TBA
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Max Goodman may be reached at [email protected].
