Kevin Gausman tossed seven strong innings and George Springer capped a 13-pitch at-bat with a solo homer on Wednesday, lifting the visiting Toronto Blue Jays to a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
Gausman (9-6) scattered four hits and struck out six without walking a batter. He exited after tossing 90 pitches, 61 for strikes.
Springer finished with three hits and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added two for the Blue Jays, who rebounded from a 1-0 setback against Cleveland on Tuesday to record their fifth win in their last six games.
Erik Swanson struck out a batter during a scoreless eighth inning to bridge the gap to Tim Mayza, who recorded the first two outs of the ninth. Jordan Hicks induced Oscar Gonzalez to pop out to end the game to secure his 11th save of the season.
Kole Calhoun had two of the six hits for the Guardians, who have lost seven of their last nine contests. Cleveland has mustered just two runs en route to losing two of the three contests of this four-game series.
Toronto opened the scoring in the first inning as Springer deposited a fastball from Logan Allen (5-5) over the wall in left-center field. Springer's homer was his 14th of the season and first since July 7.
Toronto kept its slim advantage after catcher Alejandro Kirk tossed a strike to second baseman Davis Schneider to deny Calhoun's bid for a stolen base and end the fourth inning.
Cleveland attempted to rally behind a one-out double from Gonzalez in the seventh inning. Calhoun flied out to center field and Gausman picked off Gonzalez to end the threat.
The Blue Jays threatened to build on their slim lead after recording three straight singles against Sam Hentges to load the bases in the eighth. Hentges, however, induced Danny Jansen to fly out and Schneider to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Allen fell to 1-3 in his last four starts after permitting one run on four hits in five innings.
--Field Level Media
Toronto | Cleveland | |
Kevin Gausman | Player | Logan Allen |
Win | W/L | Loss |
7.0 | IP | 5.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 3 |
4 | Hits | 4 |
0.00 | ERA | 1.80 |
Toronto | Cleveland | |
George Springer | Player | Kole Calhoun |
3 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
1 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 2 |
.750 | Avg | .667 |