The Blue Jays made it three straight with a 5-1 win over the Cardinals, and Kevin Gausman may have been the biggest reason the night felt like a clean one.
If this was Gausman’s final start in a Blue Jays uniform, he gave them a fitting one. John pulled him after 5.2 innings, and the crowd gave him a standing ovation as he came off the field. That part mattered, and John did the right thing by letting him walk off and soak it in.
The box score says Gausman allowed nine hits, but that number doesn’t tell the whole story. Most of the contact was soft, and he kept finding ways out of trouble.
The Cardinals put three singles on him in the third, but nothing came of it. They added two more singles in the fourth, again without scoring.
In the sixth, St. Louis finally scratched across its lone run after two doubles.
Gausman finished with four strikeouts over 5.2 innings.
Braydon Fisher handled the last out of the sixth and the first two outs of the seventh. Mason Fluharty got the final out of that frame.
Jeff Hoffman opened the eighth, got a lineout, issued a walk, struck out a batter, then gave up a double off the right-field wall that put runners on second and third. He escaped when a ground ball found Vlad.
Tyler Rogers finished with a quick ninth in a non-save situation.
Toronto’s offense did enough early, then broke it open in the seventh.
The Jays got on the board in the third after Davis Schneider walked following an out, and Vlad singled him to second. Kazuma Okamoto then flied out before George Springer singled home Schneider.
In the fourth, Ernie Clement led off with a single, Myles Straw doubled him to third, and Luis Urías brought him in with a sacrifice fly.
Then came the big inning. Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch to start the seventh, and he was hit again on Wednesday.
Vlad followed with an infield single. After Okamoto popped out, Springer doubled in Giménez, and Alejandro Kirk followed with a two-run single.
Toronto finished with nine hits and four walks, and it could have been more. Vlad and Springer each had two hits. Okamoto had a rough one, going 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
Other Award: Okamoto (-0.13).
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