ARLINGTON, Texas — When Kevin Gausman came off the mound after throwing five no-hit innings and said he had thrown his last pitch, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was trying not to say too much when making sure the veteran pitcher knew the situation.
Fellow starter Chris Bassitt finally just chimed in and told Gausman he was throwing a no-hitter.
Oh, Gausman knew he hadn’t allowed a hit against the Texas Rangers on Thursday. The 33-year-old right-hander had also been dealing with back spasms since experiencing a weird feeling after his final warmup pitch at the start of his outing.
“I really didn’t think that today was going to be a day I was going to throw a no-hitter,” Gausman said. “To be honest, with how bad I felt physically, I don’t know how I didn’t give up hits.”
Gausman (13-11) retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced, striking out the last two after walking Nathaniel Lowe on four pitches in the fifth inning of the Blue Jays’ 4-0 victory. He struck out six while throwing 38 of 58 pitches for strikes in his 30th start this season.
“Weird day for me. I had a no-no going and I came out of the game, which is crazy,” he said. “But you know, that’s just kind of being smart and kind of thinking about, obviously I’ve got one more start left, but also don’t want to go into the offseason with anything.”
R.A. Dickie and Mark Buehrle had been the only pitchers to make 30 starts in each of their first three seasons with the Blue Jays until Gausman reached that mark Thursday. He had already joined Dave Stieb (1983-85) as the only Toronto pitchers with at least 150 strikeouts in three consecutive seasons.
After needing only nine pitches to get through the first inning, Gausman was able to go inside and stretch to ease some of the pain.
“From the get-go, gave everything he had,” Schneider said. “Pitch count was good, I thought his stuff was good. Splitter was probably the best it’s been in a while. Just didn’t want to take any chances with him with the way he’s feeling.”
It was solely Gausman’s decision to come out of what was his 101th career victory. Four relievers finished off what became a two-hitter, with Josh Smith‘s leadoff hit in the seventh breaking up the bid for a combined no-hitter.
“It was just kind of understood that that fifth inning I kind of emptied the tank,” Gausman said. “Physically, I just felt like the smartest thing to do was for me to come out of that game, as much as I didn’t want to.”
Schneider doesn’t expect the back issue to linger, and felt it was a good sign that “he was out there still throwing and looked his normal self.”
Gausman said afterward he felt good and plans to make his last start of the season next week at home against Boston.
“It’s important to me to make all my starts,” he said. “So unless something crazy happens in he next couple days, I definitely plan to.”