Gausman v. Judge key showdown in Blue Jays’ win

TORONTO – Trent Grisham drew a six-pitch walk in the sixth inning off of Kevin Gausman and suddenly the Toronto Blue Jays were in trouble.

Gausman had been humming along on Saturday, issuing just two hits through the first five innings of Game 1 of the American League Division Series with solo home runs by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk giving Toronto a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees.

But Anthony Volpe had led off the sixth with a double, Austin Wells singled, and then Grisham’s free pass loaded the bases with no outs and MVP candidate Aaron Judge at the plate.

“Kind of mano a mano in that moment,” said Gausman in his post-game news conference. “Unfortunately, I walked the guy before to load the bases with no outs against one of the best hitters in the game.

“At that moment, you’re like, ‘all right, it’s me versus you. I’m going to give it everything I got.’”

Gausman threw a 96.9 m.p.h. four-seam fastball low and away in the zone for a called strike in his first pitch against Judge. He then threw a splitter into the dirt and a 96.5 m.p.h. four-seamer well below Judge’s strike zone to fall behind 2-1 in the count.

“I threw some pitches that I got away with, to be honest, early in the at-bat,” said Gausman. “In that moment, to be honest, I’m fine walking him. He can blow that game right open with one swing.”

Gausman returned to his splitter, getting a swinging strike on one low and inside but Judge fouled off the next one to keep the count 2-2. Judge watched Gausman’s third consecutive splitter sail well below the zone for a 3-2 count.

The Blue Jays starter then fired a 97 m.p.h. fastball in on Judge’s hands that the six-foot-seven slugger managed to foul off.

Gausman’s eighth pitch of the at-bat — an 86.1 m.p.h. splitter — was low and well outside the zone but Judge swung and missed for a crucial strikeout.

“The whole at-bat I was trying to go down and away with the split, left a couple kind of too good,” said Gausman. “But that was a good pitch. I thought the pitch before definitely set it up.”

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Judge’s whiff dropped the Yankees’ probability of winning the game down to 36 per cent, a 10.4 per cent drop after Grisham’s walk.

“It didn’t feel great, honestly,” joked Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “With Judge coming up, bases loaded, nobody out, that’s not what you want to see.

“But Kev made big pitches, man.”

Although Gausman walked Cody Bellinger in the next at bat to cut Toronto’s lead to 2-1, he induced an infield fly by Ben Rice for a second out. Reliever Louis Varland then struck out Giancarlo Stanton on four pitches to end the threat.

“Honestly, I think Louis Varland versus anybody right now, I would take him,” said Gausman. “He’s so electric. He’s throwing an almost 90-mile-an-hour knuckle-curve, and I think he struck out Stanton on 101 m.p.h.”

Bellinger’s bases loaded walk to score Volpe was all the Yankees would muster as Toronto racked up seven more runs for a 10-1 victory.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2025.

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