As he makes his major league debut for the Orioles tonight, Kevin Gausman does so at a time he has been pitching as well as he has all year.
Since pitching to an ERA of 5.63 over his first three starts for Double-A Bowie, the 22-year-old right-hander has pitched to an ERA of 1.78 with a batting average against of .218 over his past five starts, allowing six earned runs in 30 1/3 innings.
Gausman has fanned 17 batters in 10 2/3 innings over his last two starts.
He has that incredible strikeout-to-walks ratio of 49 to five over 46 1/3 innings. He walked just one batter over his first six Bowie starts and 35 2/3, then walked three and one in his past two starts.
Here are Gausman's pitch totals from his first start through his most recent Baysox outing: 84, 90, 92, 83, 94, 91, 93 and 90. He pitched a season high 7 2/3 innings April 28 against Harrisburg.
According to a stat the Bowie Baysox posted via Twitter, Gausman fanned 10 in his last start and these current major league pitchers never fanned 10 in either Double-A or Triple A: Stephen Strasburg, Felix Hernandez and Zach Grienke.
Some fans have wondered and been asking how many innings Gausman can pitch this season. While Dan Duquette would not provide an approximate number when asked yesterday, I've heard that number is 175, give or take a few innings.
Gausman is at 46 1/3 innings now, so that leaves about 130. If he stayed in the Baltimore rotation the rest of this season and made every start, that would be around 23 starts and if you do the math, that would be 138 innings if he went six every time out.
So it is close for him on getting through the whole season - and for the O's, hopefully, the postseason - on the innings. First he has to stay in the rotation all year, but the point is he would likely not have to be shut down at any point or end his season early due to an innings limit.
Finally one quirky thing Gausman has done in the minors involves his routine before he throws each warmup pitch every inning. He goes behind the mound and then kind of runs toward the pitching rubber where he then fires one into the catcher. Hope Matt Wieters is ready for it.
What is your take?: Last chance before the first pitch. Did the Orioles make the right move calling up Gausman now? How ready to do you believe he is for first major league start? How will he do tonight?
Jays scored two in the fourth: After Gausman shutout Toronto on 51 pitches and two singles through three innings, the Blue Jays scored two in the fourth against him, but he exited the inning with a 3-2 lead. It could have been worse as Toronto had the bases loaded and one out, down 3-1 but got just one more run. Gausman gave up an average against of just .158 with runners in scoring position at Bowie this year and he got some big outs in that inning.
Arencibia again: After he had an RBI double in the fourth, J.P. Arencibia turned around a Gausman 96 mph fastball in the last of the fifth for a two-run homer. The Jays have scored in back-to-back innings and took a 4-3 lead on that homer.
Out after five: Gausman was taken out after five innings tonight allowing seven hits and four runs with two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches, 58 for strikes.
He could take the loss, but I thought most fans tonight got their first look at the right-hander and got to see some of the talent that we've seen on display in the O's minors.
What did you think of the kid's debut?
By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://www.masnsports.com/