NEW YORK — After making nine starts at New York City’s other ballpark and giving up eight homers against power-laden Yankees lineups attuned to its hitter-friendly dimensions, Kevin Gausman made his first start at Citi Field in his Braves debut Saturday night. He faced an unimpressive Mets lineup in a park that favors pitchers, something he saw infrequently during six seasons with the Baltimore Orioles.
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For five innings things went well, with the Mets scoring one run, and that came on a sketchy defensive play by the Braves. The Mets got two runs in the sixth, however, after Gausman allowed three consecutive singles to start the inning and was replaced with the bases loaded.
That was more than enough for the Mets to snap a four-game skid on a night when Atlanta-area native Zack Wheeler continued his recent torrid stretch of pitching with seven overpowering innings in a 3-0 victory. That snapped the Braves’ five-game winning streak and dropped them to 1½ games behind first-place Philadelphia in the National League East.
But the loss and Gausman’s modest pitching line — six hits, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts — did nothing to dampen the Braves’ enthusiasm about the veteran acquired from Baltimore in a deal at the trade deadline Tuesday. Gausman joined a rotation that had the majors’ sixth-best ERA (3.68) before Saturday but has dealt with recent injuries, including possible season-ending issues for Brandon McCarthy and rookie Mike Soroka.
“I really liked it, quite honestly,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Gausman’s NL debut. “I think there’s a lot there. He’s going to be a really good piece for us going forward. I liked a lot of what I saw.”
And this from veteran catcher Tyler Flowers: “If we can do a little better job getting ahead of guys, I think the sky’s the limit for this guy.”
Before getting into the results from Saturday, here’s some background on Gausman, a 27-year-old right-hander whom the Braves believe will benefit from the switch in leagues and home ballparks and from the team’s emphasis on analytics this season under first-year general manager Alex Anthopoulos. The new GM assembled an elite team of stat-crunchers led by Alex Tammin, whom Anthopoulos worked with the previous two years with the Dodgers.
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With the Orioles in the American League East, Gausman faced a steady diet of power-hitting opponents in ballparks mostly geared toward slugging. Before Saturday, he had a 4.43 ERA this season against AL East teams and a 3.13 ERA against everyone else.
“Tampa is probably the only ballpark in the division that plays somewhat true,” Gausman said upon joining the Braves on Thursday in New York at the beginning of an important eight-game trip against division opponents New York and Washington. “All the other ones are pretty hitter-friendly ballparks. So as a starting pitcher it’s tough. Not just the American League but (especially in) the American League East.
“Every lineup is stacked full of guys why are trying to him home runs. Sometimes it helps you, and sometimes it hurts you. I think some guys have bigger holes in their swing maybe in the American League. But at the same time the damage (hitters do) is maybe a little bit more than in the National League.”
The damage against Gausman in the first five innings Saturday was limited to three hits and a run scored in the second inning, that coming when Amed Rosario hit a soft, one-out grounder to third baseman Johan Camargo with runners at second and third. Todd Frazier had been hit by a pitch to start the inning, and Jeff McNeil doubled.
Camargo fielded Rosario’s ground on the infield grass, looked toward Frazier on the third-base line and hesitated for a moment before throwing to first base. As soon as he started his throw, Frazier took off for the plate. First baseman Freddie Freeman has a strong arm but had no chance to get a throw off quickly enough to keep Frazier from scoring.
“On a play like that it’s probably just better to get rid of the ball as quick as you can,” Snitker said of Camargo’s actions on the play. “If he’s not going (from third), just get rid of the ball, because the longer you keep that ball in your hand, the longer he’s going to be able to gauge and pace you out.”
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The Mets’ only other scoring threat through five innings was a two-on, two-out situation in the third. Gausman quashed it by striking out Frazier.
The Braves failed to advance a runner to second base in the first six innings, and Wheeler allowed just three hits and had one walk with nine strikeouts in seven innings, improving to 4-0 with a 1.95 ERA in his past four starts.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets loaded the bases with three consecutive singles — Michael Conforto, Frazier on a grounder through the left side of the infield and McNeil — to start the inning against Gausman, who was replaced with none out after throwing 86 pitches, including 51 strikes.
Reliever Shane Carle induced a potential double-play grounder by Austin Jackson, but the ball caromed off Carle’s foot for a run-scoring single. One strikeout later, a sacrifice fly from Kevin Plawecki pushed the lead to 3-0 for the Mets, who beat the Braves for the first time in six games this season at Citi Field.
Asked to evaluate his performance, Gausman said, “A lot of new experiences, but overall I thought it was good. Good things to build from. Any time you work with a catcher for the first time, it’s going to be different, but Tyler caught a great game. You can see why all the analytics have him as one of the best pitch-framers. I kind of noticed that right out of the gate.
“It was weird, I was probably more nervous (Saturday) than I was for my debut. But once I got the first out it was the same game I’ve been playing for a while.”
Gausman was so nervous during the day that he said he took a 90-minute nap at the team hotel, something he never does. Once he got started, Gausman displayed a wide assortment of pitches, complementing a 94- to 97-mph four-seam fastball with split-finger pitches, mid- to upper-80-mph sliders, changeups and some curveballs.
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Flowers said Gausman “deserved better” than the pitching line indicated.
“Yeah, even the first (run), if we don’t hit a guy with a 3-2 changeup, and then a difficult, interesting play (on the grounder to Camargo),” Flowers said. “Again, that’s out of his control at that point. Just kept executing pitches. I thought he did a nice job of it. I mean, it’s a sneaky fastball; it’s a really good changeup, split. Slider was a little bit better than I anticipated, and I’m sure he’ll get a little more comfortable with that.”
Snitker said, “That’s a tough one on the ground ball (to Camargo). We’ve stolen that run before, too. And that’s a tough play for Shane, but if he makes a play we get the double play, it’s a different inning. It’s just against a guy like (Wheeler) and the guy the night before (Jacob deGrom), you pretty much have to play a flawless game, because they’re not giving you a lot of chances.”
While Gausman has begun to discuss adjustments the Braves believe will help him progress, there wasn’t enough time to implement anything new Saturday after only a few days with the team. One area that has hurt him all season is the first batter faced in any inning, and that continued Saturday, when three of the six reached base: on a hit-by-pitch in the second inning, a single in the fourth and a single in the sixth.
Before Saturday, Gausman allowed a .361 average with nine doubles and a majors-leading 12 homers against the first batters of innings.
“I think all that stuff like that are things they’ll identify, and it’ll be good for him, yes,” Snitker said, when asked if the first-batter issue was one that would be addressed by the Braves.
While neither Gausman’s season nor his career statistics raised the collective pulse rate of Braves fans after the trade was announced, the team seemed genuinely thrilled by the addition, from the general manager and manager down to the team’s pitchers and position players, including a couple of current Braves who played with him in Baltimore.
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Braves veteran Nick Markakis saw Gausman go from first-round draft pick (fourth overall in 2012 out of LSU) to a rookie with a 7-7 record and 3.57 ERA in 20 starts for the Orioles in 2014, when they won the AL East in Markakis’ final season in Baltimore.
Markakis thinks the moves Anthopoulos made before the trade deadline were as good as or better than any team made, given the Braves’ circumstances and desire to improve the team without mortgaging the future by giving up elite prospects. The Braves sent four prospects and $2.5 million in international free-agent signing slots to the Orioles for Gausman, who has two more seasons of contractual control, and veteran reliever Darren O’Day, who’s out the rest of this season recovering from hamstring surgery but signed through 2019.
“Tall, lanky dude. Great stuff. Good arm,” Markakis said before Gausman’s Braves debut. “He’s got a chance to help us out really big in our starting rotation. He’s good to have. Good kid, quiet kid, works hard, goes about his business. He’s everything you want pretty much in a starting pitcher.”
Braves infielder Ryan Flaherty, another former Orioles teammate, said, “His stuff is as electric as they come. It reminds me of, like, Folty (Mike Foltynewicz). You live in that division for the five years that he’s been there, it’s a tough division. I know he’s excited to be here. I’ve seen him pitch in a lot of big games, and I know he’s going to help us down the stretch big-time.”
After joining the Braves in New York, Gausman’s first impression of his new team was this: “They’re a lot younger than the team I was just on, so that’s probably the biggest difference I noticed right way. But watching from the other side, this is a team that kind of seems to do everything well. Really exciting team to watch, really fun, fast, athletic. Young starting pitchers. Also veteran bullpen guys. It’s a good mix of a lot of different guys and obviously, they’re playing well right now.”
Gausman had a 4.22 career ERA in 150 games (127 starts) with the Orioles, for whom he made 48 percent of his starts against AL East teams. He allowed eight homers in 56 innings at Yankee Stadium, eight homers in 54 innings at Toronto’s Rogers Centre and 21 earned runs and four homers in 41-1/3 innings at Boston’s Fenway Park.
“I had some good years with the Orioles, but to be honest with you, I never felt like I got to the best of my abilities,” he said.
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You begin to see why a pitcher who spent his major-league career with one team might enjoy switching from the AL East to the NL East.
“There comes a point where playing 70-something games a year in the American League East beats pitchers down,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter told The Athletic’s Peter Gammons. “That’s not to say that every year it is the best division in the game. But if you’re pitching in Baltimore, your team is playing 108 games in Camden Yards, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Rogers Centre. Four of the best hitters’ parks in the game. Most years, there are big crowds, the games seem big, there’s no letdown. It’s hard for young pitchers to develop.
“It’s hard to go from the NL Central to the AL East. And how often do we see pitchers get new lives going the other direction?”
The Yankees led the majors with 175 home runs before Saturday, and the Red Sox (150) and Blue Jays (147) were fifth and seventh. Even Baltimore was 13th with 133 homers — two more than Washington’s NL East-leading total before Saturday. The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays had half of the majors’ top eight totals for homers in home games, while the NL East’s Mets and Miami Marlins were 27th and 29th.
The Braves, by the way, were tied for 25th in home runs at home before Saturday. Don’t believe what you might’ve read about SunTrust Park being a hitters’ park. It was for about two months in 2017, but since it has been more of a pitchers’ park for just about everyone except the Braves’ Julio Teheran.
“He pitched his game (Saturday),” Snitker said of Gausman. “I just think overall our system’s going to be good for him. I don’t think we’re going to reinvent him by any stretch. He’s a really good pitcher. I just think what we have here is going to help him. I really liked what I saw, how he competes and the ability to control the running game. He’s going to help himself with the bat as he gets at-bats. He’s the kind of guy who can do a lot of things to help himself win a game.”
(Photo of Kevin Gausman by Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports)
