{"id":818937,"date":"2026-07-22T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818937\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:26:12","slug":"after-tough-loss-ahead-of-trade-deadline-gausman-says-he-doesnt-want-to-leave-toronto-on-sour-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818937\/","title":{"rendered":"After tough loss ahead of trade deadline, Gausman says he doesn&#8217;t want to leave Toronto on sour note"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Gausman hopes that wasn&#8217;t his final time pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Gausman pitched 3 1\/3 innings, allowing five runs \u2014 four earned \u2014 on nine hits and two walks as Toronto fell to the Tampa Bay Rays 12-2 on Tuesday. Gausman&#8217;s number will come up twice more in the Blue Jays&#8217; rotation before Major League Baseball&#8217;s trade deadline on Aug. 3, with his next start likely coming in Boston on July 26.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not a great lasting impression,&#8221; said Gausman. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to think about that too much because I&#8217;m a Blue Jay right now, and the focus is this team and this room and those guys. That&#8217;s where my mind&#8217;s at right now.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But yeah, that is kind of crazy to think about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gausman signed a five-year, $110-million US deal with Toronto on Dec. 21, 2021 and has been one of the Blue Jays&#8217; most reliable starters for five seasons. He has a 52-50 record in that span with a 3.60 earned-run average and 910 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old right-hander has scuffled to a 4-9 record and 4.51 ERA this season with 117 strikeouts. Despite those struggles, Gausman could be an attractive addition for a contending team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s impossible to ignore nowadays with social media,&#8221; said Gausman about Toronto&#8217;s struggles with the deadline looming. &#8220;We kind of all know it&#8217;s going on, and, unfortunately, we knew we kind of needed to come out of the gate strong, and we really haven&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We just haven&#8217;t played very well lately.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jays expected to be sellers as trade deadline looms<\/p>\n<p>Less than a year removed from reaching Game 7 of the World Series, it appears that Toronto will be a seller at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jays (46-55) have lost three in a row and are fifth in the American League East, six games out of a wild-card berth. Toronto&#8217;s 400 runs scored are the fewest in MLB.<\/p>\n<p>Gausman said some of the Blue Jays&#8217; offensive struggles are due simply to bad luck.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Feels like every hard-hit ball on our side is right at somebody, and maybe on the other side not so much,&#8221; said Gausman, who could potentially start on Aug. 1 in Toronto against the St. Louis Cardinals, if the Blue Jays have not traded him or rest him to protect a potential deal. &#8220;We just haven&#8217;t been playing very clean baseball, you know, especially on the defensive side.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the guys are putting pressure on themselves in the batter&#8217;s box, and the pitching in this league is really good, so it&#8217;s hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A pitcher throwing during practice.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784737572_804_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5017301038062283\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Kevin Gausman warms up for Toronto at Rogers Centre ahead of Game 6 of the 2025 World Series. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Manager John Schneider couldn&#8217;t hide his disappointment after the lopsided loss to the American East-leading Rays (58-42). Tampa Bay outhit Toronto 21-7 and could have done even more damage, leaving 11 runners on base.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re trying to just piece things, piece innings, together,&#8221; said Schneider. &#8220;Try to stay in it as much as you can without jeopardizing things moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a frustrating day from the get go.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-818937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818937","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=818937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}