Kevin Gausman pitched seven scoreless innings, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 10th home run since the All-Star break, and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Angels 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Will Wagner continued his strong start in the majors with two hits, including a two-run double in the first inning against Angels starter Carson Fulmer (0-3). Wagner, the son of former All-Star closer Billy Wagner, has five hits in eight at-bats in his first two games, including three doubles and three RBIs.
Willie Calhoun prevented the Angels from being shut out with a homer to right-center in the ninth inning. Zach Neto added three hits.
Gausman (11-8) is 5-0 with a 3.19 ERA in six starts since July 11. The right-hander allowed six hits, walked two batters, and struck out five while going at least seven innings for the fifth time this season.
“I’ll probably say command, even though I have been walking a lot of guys, but I’m kind of around the strike zone more,” Gausman said about his recent strong performances.
“I got into a lot of deep counts, but we did a good job of mixing my fastball up and down, and that kind of opened up the offspeed pitches.”
The Angels had the bases loaded with one out in the second inning, but Gausman managed to escape when Jo Adell grounded into a double play.
“We loaded the bases and did exactly what he wanted us to do. He threw a sinker and we rolled into the ground and got a double play and ended the inning when we had the chance to do something,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “Veteran pitcher and he took a young club to school.”
Guerrero hit a hanging sweeper from Angels starter Carson Fulmer into the Blue Jays’ bullpen in left field for a solo home run that extended Toronto’s lead to 4-0 in the third inning.
It was Guerrero’s second homer in 15 career games at The Big A, the ballpark where his father, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., played for six seasons and hit 89 home runs.
“I thought he took good swings all night,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said about the younger Guerrero.
“The game plan against Fulmer was to get him up, and he caught a hanging breaking ball. He is as good as anybody right now around the league.”
A few pitches later, Spencer Horwitz hit an elevated fastball into the stands in right-center, marking the second time this season that the Blue Jays have hit back-to-back homers. Guerrero was part of both instances.
Guerrero leads the majors with a .464 batting average (39 for 84) and 22 extra-base hits since the break.
The Blue Jays quickly took the lead with three runs in the first inning, which included Wagner’s two-run double into the right-field corner. Toronto scored when Ernie Clement hit a hard grounder that bounced off the third-base bag and into shallow left field, driving in George Springer.
Wagner, who had three hits in his big league debut on Monday, also had a double in the third inning. Joey Loperfido’s RBI single made it 6-0 in the eighth inning.
Springer was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after a replay review confirmed that Springer was not hit on the right foot by a pitch from Kenny Rosenberg.
Springer became very upset after being ejected and had to be held back by manager John Schneider and Guerrero.
Major League Baseball stated in an email that replay official Adrian Johnson could not definitively determine that the ball hit Springer’s foot after reviewing all relevant angles.
Gonzalez and the umpire crew were not available for comment as a report about the ejection is being submitted to the Commissioner’s Office for review.
