Article: Kevin Gausman Just Made the Best Start of His Career

[Leo Morgenstern]

Fifty-five fastballs, thirty-seven splitters, and eight sliders. Those 100 pitches were all it took for Kevin Gausman to sit down 27 Astros on Thursday afternoon. He struck out nine and faced just three batters over the minimum as he led the Blue Jays to a 6-0 victory and a satisfying series win. When all was said and done, Gausman joined Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, and Nathan Eovaldi as the only AL pitchers with a shutout in 2025. The Blue Jays righty is the only pitcher in either league with a shutout in each of the past two seasons.

Game score is a metric designed to evaluate a starting pitcher's performance in an individual outing. There are a couple of different variations – Bill James's original creation, housed at Baseball Reference, and Tom Tango's updated version (GSv2), housed at FanGraphs – but they're pretty similar, and they serve the same goal. The higher the game score, the better the start.

According to both versions of game score, Gausman's start against the Astros wasn't just his best of the season. It wasn’t just the best start of his Blue Jays tenure. It was the best start of his 13-year major league career.

Gausman's Best Starts (by Game Score and GSv2)

Date	Opponent	IP	R	H	BB	SO	Game Score	GSv2
Sept. 11, 2025	Astros	9.0	0	2	1	9	91	96
Aug. 2, 2022	Rays	8.0	0	1	1	10	89	93
May 5, 2018	Athletics	9.0	0	2	2	6	87	92
June 8, 2024	Athletics	9.0	0	5	1	10	86	91

Gausman has thrown four complete games in his career, but only two have been shutouts. The first came last summer against the A's. He struck out 10, but he also gave up five hits. That's three more than he allowed on Thursday – hence his lower game score that day. 

Interestingly, Gausman's second-best start by game score (both versions) wasn't any of his complete games. Instead, it was a one-hit effort against the Rays in 2022, when he struck out 10 and walked only one in eight scoreless innings.

Thursday's matchup with the Astros was also the best start of Gausman's career by Baseball Savant's context-neutral run value metric. According to RV, he provided the Blue Jays with six runs of value, which, funnily enough, was also their margin of victory on the day.  

Gausman's second-best start by RV wasn't any of his other complete games, nor was it that eight-inning showing against Tampa Bay. No, it was all the way back in 2018, his final season with the Orioles. On May 5, 2018, Gausman threw nine shutout innings against the A's, striking out six, walking two, and allowing two base hits. Unfortunately, he didn't earn a shutout because the Orioles failed to score behind him. It wasn't until the bottom of the 12th, long after Gausman had left for the day, that the A's finally scored and ended the ballgame.

Yesterday's game was also arguably the most efficient outing of Gausman's big league tenure. In terms of pitches per inning, it was only his second most efficient start. However, his most efficient start by that metric was an eight-inning, 88-pitch performance (against the Red Sox in 2021). He retired three more batters this time around, and he was only one pitch off his most efficient pace.

On a related note, this game was one of Gausman's top five starts in both strike percentage and total strikes. The only outing of his career in which he threw more strikes and threw strikes at a higher rate was on May 11, 2018, a 7.1-inning quality start against the Rays.

There is no doubt that Gausman's performance was the very best we've seen from a Blue Jays starter all season. In fact, one could make a pretty solid case that it was the best start we've seen from a Blue Jay since Brandon Morrow's ridiculous 17-strikeout shutout against the Rays in 2010. Here's a list of every Blue Jays start with a game score of 90 or higher (per Baseball Reference) in the 21st century. Morrow's outing is in a class of its own, but Gausman's gem stacks up nicely against all the others:

Player	Year	GmSc	IP	R	H	BB	SO	HBP	BF	Pit	Strike%
Brandon Morrow	2010	100	9.0	0	1	2	17	0	31	137	70.8%
Roy Halladay	2005	93	9.0	0	2	0	10	1	30	99	72.7%
Ted Lilly	2004	92	9.0	0	3	2	13	1	33	126	63.5%
Dave Bush	2004	91	9.0	0	2	3	11	1	32	117	65.0%
Kevin Gausman	2025	91	9.0	0	2	1	9	0	30	100	79.0%
Roy Halladay	2001	91	9.0	0	2	0	8	0	29	83	72.3%
Roy Halladay	2009	91	9.0	0	1	3	9	0	31	111	65.8%
Dustin McGowan	2007	91	9.0	0	1	1	7	0	29	109	67.0%
Mark Buehrle	2013	90	9.0	0	2	2	9	1	31	108	68.5%
Marco Estrada	2015	90	8.2	0	2	0	10	0	28	129	66.7%
Roy Halladay	2003	90	10.0	0	3	1	5	1	35	99	70.7%
Roy Halladay	2008	90	9.0	0	2	1	8	2	31	113	67.3%
Esteban Loaiza	2002	90	9.0	0	2	0	7	0	28	110	71.8%
Alek Manoah	2021	90	8.0	0	1	0	10	1	26	97	63.9%

Gausman has started 358 games in his major league career. Since his first full season as a starter in 2016, only one pitcher, Patrick Corbin, has started more games or thrown more innings. Considering Gausman's age (he'll be 35 in January) and the sheer number of starts under his belt, basic probability would have suggested his best start was already behind him. 

Yet, I'm sure Gausman himself would have disagreed. And he would have been right. With 55 fastballs, 37 splitters, and eight sliders, Kevin Gausman made his 358th start the very best of them all...

...so far.

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[Mike LeSage]

1. Does this cement Gausman as the Game 1 starter regardless of who our first playoff opponent is?

2. That 10 IP shutout from Halladay is such a beautiful stat line.

3. I could honestly stare at that game score chart for hours.

[Spanky__99]

11 minutes ago, Mike LeSage said:

1. Does this cement Gausman as the Game 1 starter regardless of who our first playoff opponent is?

2. That 10 IP shutout from Halladay is such a beautiful stat line.

3. I could honestly stare at that game score chart for hours.

I'd assume he's in the driver's seat, a few starts to go and we'll have our answer.

[EnglishJay]

It was a privilege to watch a pitcher at the absolute top of his game.

And seeing Manoah on that list is a timely reminder of how good he was. I hope he can get back there.

[Leo Morgenstern]

6 hours ago, Mike LeSage said:

1. Does this cement Gausman as the Game 1 starter regardless of who our first playoff opponent is?

2. That 10 IP shutout from Halladay is such a beautiful stat line.

3. I could honestly stare at that game score chart for hours.

 

5 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

I'd assume he's in the driver's seat, a few starts to go and we'll have our answer.

Yeah, I think it probably should be Gausman, almost regardless of what happens from here on out. But I’m not ready to say it’s set in stone yet. I could still see it being Bieber if he really shoves in his final three starts.

And yeah, I love remembering old starts and the guys that threw them. Or learning about them for the first time! This is how I learned that Halladay threw a 10-inning Maddux in 2003. Absolutely remarkable. I wonder if anyone else has done that since.

[AMS528]

Halladay was absurd. He's got the 10 inning performance which I distinctly remember. Amazing that he only three 99 pitches. The 83 pitch complete game is also just wild. 

On the opposite end, I did not realise that Morrow threw 137 pitches. Don't know if we're gonna be repeating that ever again.