Kevin Gausman diced the Philadelphia Phillies up on Wednesday. He threw six shutout innings, walking none and allowing just three hits while striking out nine in an eventual extra-inning Blue Jays loss.
It did not come easy for the accomplished righty, however — if his own postgame comments are any indication.
“I think they’re the best lineup in the National League,” Gausman told the collective media, including MLB.com‘s Paul Casella, “from top to bottom.”
That statement might be truer on paper than it is in practice, at least so far this season. The Phillies rank third in the NL in batting average, eighth in on-base percentage, fifth in slugging percentage and a subpar ninth in runs.
But much of that relative underperformance is due to slow starts from Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber, as well as a monthlong Bryce Harper absence. Once those first two get going — which history strongly suggests they will — there’s no reason the Phillies can’t produce like a top-of-the-NL lineup, particularly if Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott revert back to their April ways.
It’s probably a good sign that Gausman, one of the better pitchers in baseball and a top-10 Cy Young finisher the past two seasons, had that takeaway even after mowing the Phillies’ offense down like he did. And even on a day where the bats went relatively silent, the group demonstrated it’s always somewhat of a pain in the neck, stringing together a few clutch hits against Jordan Romano to tie it up in the ninth before the eventual walk-off an inning later.
“Going in, you know you’ve gotta be pretty fine,” Gausman said of facing the Phillies. “You’re gonna have to throw good pitches in good counts.”
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