{"id":664554,"date":"2026-05-12T13:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/664554\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:59:08","slug":"blue-jays-ace-kevin-gausman-reaches-2000-strikeout-milestone-90th-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/664554\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman reaches 2,000 strikeout milestone, 90th all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Kevin Gausman<\/a> gained some ground on Max Scherzer<\/a> on Major League Baseball\u2019s all-time strikeout list on Monday, even reaching a major milestone.<\/p>\n

Gausman struck out five over 4 2\/3 innings but took the loss as the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> fell to the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> 8-5. Gausman\u2019s third strikeout of the game \u2014 fanning Hunter Feduccia<\/a> in the fourth inning \u2014 was the 2,000th K of his 14-year career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that I got my 2,000 before Max got his 3,500,\u201d joked the laid-back Gausman, who moved up to 90th on the all-time list.<\/p>\n

There are five other active pitchers ahead of Gausman on the list: Detroit\u2019s Justin Verlander<\/a> (eighth), Scherzer (11th), Atlanta\u2019s Chris Sale<\/a> (28th), New York\u2019s Gerrit Cole<\/a> (61st) and San Diego\u2019s Yu Darvish<\/a> (80th).<\/p>\n

Scherzer is sitting at 3,499 on his surefire Hall of Fame career, but he\u2019s on the Blue Jays 15-day injured list with right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. Toronto manager John Schneider announced Monday that Scherzer will also get a cortisone injection in his right thumb.<\/p>\n

Gausman was confident that, once healthy, his teammate will quickly reach the 3,500 mark and move ahead of legendary Walter Johnson on the list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Scherzer) will be top 10, so there\u2019s a big difference there (between us),\u201d said Gausman. \u201cMy career has been ups and downs and been very different, not all sunshine and rainbows.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I take those things very seriously and, yeah, I\u2019m honoured by it, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite reaching the milestone, it was actually the worst outing of Gausman\u2019s season to date. <\/p>\n

The 35-year-old right-hander (2-3) allowed seven runs \u2014 six earned \u2014 on 10 hits. It was the most runs he\u2019d given up since he allowed four to the Minnesota Twins<\/a> over 5 2\/3 innings runs on April 30.<\/p>\n

His earned-run average rose from 3.09 to 3.86 over the course of the game.<\/p>\n

Still, he got a rousing ovation when he struck out Feduccia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some really cool moments here as a player, where the fans have made you feel some love,\u201d said Gausman, who also had his first career strikeout at Rogers Centre when he was a member of the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>. \u201cI just wish I would have been able to enjoy it a little bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving up six runs isn\u2019t isn\u2019t fun, but, yeah, it was a cool moment, and I\u2019ll definitely remember that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Gausman said he never thought he\u2019d reach the 2,000 K plateau, Schneider wasn\u2019t surprised the ace of Toronto\u2019s staff accomplished the feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think of Kevin, you think of consistency, durability and performance,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cTwo thousand is quite an accomplishment in this day and age.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Kevin Gausman gained some ground on Max Scherzer on Major League Baseball\u2019s all-time strikeout list on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-664554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}