TORONTO — Kevin Gausman is the newest addition to baseball’s 2,000 career strikeout club.
Pitching in the 370th game of his career, Gausman — who made his major-league debut at the Rogers Centre almost 13 years to the day (May 23, 2013) — entered Monday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays needing just three strikeouts to reach 2,000. And by the top of the fourth inning, he officially made it.
The 35-year-old starter punched out a pair of batters in the first and third innings, respectively, putting him just one punchout away as he began the fourth. All he needed was one batter, and the moment was his, as the veteran right-hander struck out Hunter Feduccia on a 94.6-m.p.h. fastball, getting the Rays catcher to swing through it for strike three.
“I’ve had some really cool moments here as a player, where the fans have kind of made you feel some love. And I just wish I would have been able to kind of enjoy it a little bit more,” said Gausman, who surrendered season-highs in runs (seven, six earned) and hits (10) over 4.2 innings. “Giving up six runs isn’t fun, but, yeah, it was a cool moment. I’ll definitely remember that forever.”
“I think when you think of Kevin, you think of consistency, durability and performance.[Getting] 2,000 is quite an accomplishment in this in this day and age,” manager John Schneider added.
That’s 2000 career strikeouts for Kevin Gausman!
🎥 Sportsnet | #Bluejays
But Gausman didn’t stop there, also striking out the next batter, Taylor Walls, for the second out of the fourth — on a fastball, too.
Fittingly, Gausman’s 2,000th career strikeout occurred in the same stadium as his first — against Edwin Encarnación during his MLB and Baltimore Orioles debut in ’13. He now becomes the sixth active pitcher to accomplish this feat, joining Yu Darvish (2,075), Gerrit Cole (2,251), Chris Sale (2,628), Max Scherzer (3,499) and Justin Verlander (3,554).
“I definitely never thought I would get here, and be in the same sentence as the guys that are currently all guys I consider great pitchers,” Gausman said, also joking that he’s glad his 2,000th career strikeout came before Scherzer’s 3,500th. “For me, it’s very humbling and very cool.”
Despite being a late bloomer, Gausman has been among baseball’s most durable starters since his breakout 2021 campaign. He entered Monday night with 972.1 total innings over 166 starts split between the Giants and Blue Jays, sitting second to only San Francisco’s Logan Webb (1,016.1) in innings pitched and rotationmate Dylan Cease in games started (170) in that span.
Since this organization’s competitive window opened in ’21, you could argue that no player outside of perhaps Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has meant more to the franchise than Gausman, who’s in the final season of his five-year, $110 million contract — a deal that’s proven to be a bargain time after time.
“For him to get that [2,000 career strikeouts], it’s durability for one, and it’s being able to adjust as you get a little bit older, as your career goes on. And pretty cool that he got to do it here in front of the fans,” Schneider said.