Kevin Gausman’s command vanished in the opening inning at Wrigley Field, leading to four walks, Seiya Suzuki’s RBI double, and a Carson Kelly grand slam as the Chicago Cubs rolled past the Toronto Blue Jays 16-2. The loss dropped Toronto to 37-39 after a sweep
CHICAGO — Kevin Gausman threw four pitches to Pete Crow-Armstrong to start his Friday outing. and the tone was set almost immediately. The Toronto right-hander lost control of the strike zone. the Chicago Cubs worked him hard from the outset. and the game effectively turned into a first-inning assignment on a beautiful day at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs didn’t waste it. A Seiya Suzuki double came around to make the early damage count. and by the time Carson Kelly capped the inning with a grand slam. the Blue Jays were already in survival mode. Chicago’s 16-2 win landed with extra sting for Toronto after an encouraging sweep over the Red Sox in Boston.
The loss dropped the Blue Jays to 37-39 and kept them from reaching .500. Outside of the early momentum that didn’t arrive, there wasn’t much to grab onto. George Springer launched his third homer in seven games, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. checked out okay after tweaking his back on a sixth-inning swing and being removed from the contest as a precaution.
“I just want to be careful,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Just checked with him. He’s feeling better. Nothing like what it was when he missed a couple games (last weekend). So, unless anything changes, I think he should be good to go for tomorrow, so that’s positive.”
What hurt most for Toronto was how quickly Gausman’s day tilted. He walked the first two batters he faced and both scored on Suzuki’s double. with the ball going off right-fielder Jesus Sanchez’s glove. Gausman would have had the second out, but control issues kept lingering. He then walked the next two hitters. striking out Nico Hoerner before Kelly deposited a hanging slider into the left-field stands for the grand slam.
Schneider summed up the problem with one sentence.
“Weird command from the get-go,” he said. “It’s uncharacteristic of him.”
All told, Gausman allowed seven runs in the first inning while facing 12 batters and throwing 44 pitches. His four walks in that frame were more than he’d issued in any start this season and in any outing dating back to July 1 of last year.
“Four walks in one inning. Not normally me,” Gausman said. “ Just a lot of close pitches. But yeah, I mean you put that many guys on in the first, you’re kind of asking for trouble.
“We’ve been playing really good and, you know, first game of a series, as a starter, you set the momentum,” he added. “And I just didn’t.”
Gausman insisted he felt fine physically and said he wasn’t dealing with mechanical issues. His splitter had the right shape; the problem was command.
“They could tell that I was kind of out of whack and picked their spots to be aggressive,” he said. “Just not a good day.”
He lasted just two innings on 68 pitches. Schneider chose not to push him into a third frame, opting to remove the right-hander to limit his workload. That choice made sense for the pitcher’s body, but it carried a cost for the team.
The Blue Jays were only four days into a stretch of 16 games in 16 days. and Gausman’s short outing forced Toronto to burn through relievers early. Five relievers were used on Friday, applying pressure to a bullpen that already carried a heavy load this season. For context. Blue Jays starters have tallied 345.2 innings this season. while the club’s relievers have combined for 327—the fourth-highest total in MLB.
Braydon Fisher followed Gausman and covered an inning before giving way to Tommy Nance and left-hander Brendon Little, who was recalled prior to the game with the Blue Jays sending right-hander Chad Dallas to triple-A.
Little’s recent resume includes struggles that have been well documented from the playoffs and earlier this season. His numbers in Buffalo looked steadier—he posted a 2.31 ERA—but his 19 walks in 23.1 innings suggested the command problems that led to his demotion in April hadn’t fully disappeared.
On Friday, Little began by walking Crow-Armstrong but retired the next two Cubs hitters to end the fifth inning. In the sixth, he walked two more batters and allowed two singles as Chicago kept pouring on runs. Spencer Miles and Tyler Rogers also pitched for the Blue Jays before outfielder Myles Straw was handed the ball to record the final four outs.
One bright thread through the disruption is what’s coming next for Toronto’s staff. Shane Bieber is scheduled to return soon, offering a potential reset after Friday’s bullpen workload.
Bieber pitched on Wednesday in his fifth minor-league rehab outing and rejoined the Blue Jays in Chicago. He said he’s “definitely happy with where everything’s at and how I’m feeling,” after getting up to 80 pitches.
The plan is for Bieber to throw a bullpen on Saturday. If everything goes well, Schneider said he’ll likely be activated and start Monday’s game.
Bieber’s last tune-up didn’t produce the results Toronto would prefer—he surrendered five runs on four walks and seven hits against the Charlotte Knights—but he framed it as part of the larger build toward impact.
“I don’t care what kind of game it is, I want results,” Bieber said. “When you get that you always feel a lot better. But when you’re looking at the grand scheme of things and what I’m setting out to do. building the pitch counts and getting ready to impact the team in a positive way here. I think you have to check that box of getting through innings and getting through ups and I was able to do that.
“I’m trying to separate the good from the bad and move forward.”
Toronto now has to do the same after a Friday night that started with Gausman’s command slipping. widened into an opening-inning rout. and forced a bullpen into a workload it didn’t choose. The only question left is how much Tuesday-through-Friday momentum can survive the innings already burned up on Friday—and whether Bieber’s return can help the staff catch its breath before the schedule tightens again.
Kevin Gausman Toronto Blue Jays Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Seiya Suzuki Carson Kelly grand slam bullpen strain George Springer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Shane Bieber Brendon Little