Danny Jansen and Spencer Horwitz hit home runs, and Kevin Gausman pitched well for seven innings against his former team as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Thursday.
Gausman, now with a 7-8 record, allowed two runs and six hits while striking out three and walking none in his return to Oracle Park where he pitched for the Giants in 2020-21.
“I have a lot of special memories here,” Gausman reflected. “Although I don’t know many guys there now, I have a lot of respect for everyone there.”
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Justin Turner, and Leo Jiménez also contributed RBIs for Toronto, who won two out of three games against San Francisco and have won four of their last five overall.
“We’ve been having some great at-bats recently,” Jansen remarked. “It’s contagious. We’re feeding off each other, sticking to our approach as a team, and attacking pitches in the middle of the plate. That’s where we’re doing damage. It was a great game and a good series with the bats.”
Kevin Kiermaier of Toronto had two hits and made a diving catch in center field to prevent a hit by Matt Chapman in the fourth inning.
Heliot Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski homered for the Giants, who have now lost four of their last five games.
Jordan Hicks (4-6) suffered his fifth consecutive loss, giving up five runs and eight hits with one strikeout and one walk over 4 1/3 innings against his former team. Hicks appeared in 25 relief games for the Blue Jays last season.
“It just wasn’t a great outing overall,” Hicks admitted. “It wasn’t my best performance. … I feel like I got hurt by some groundballs that found holes, in addition to the two homers. Those were obviously big, but those grounders finding their way through hurt as well. It’s tough, but I’ll keep battling.”
Jansen hit his sixth home run of the season in the first inning to cap a three-run start for Toronto, marking his first homer since May 20.
“It definitely felt good,” Jansen said. “I’ve been grinding it out over the past few weeks. Just trying to have good at-bats and set up the next guy. So, to be able to square one up, it definitely felt good. I’ll keep building on this and keep pushing forward.”
