ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Gausman tossed seven shutout innings, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 10th home run since the All-Star break and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Will Wagner continued his strong start in the majors with two hits, including a two-run double in the first inning off Angels starter Carson Fulmer (0-3). Wagner, the son of former All-Star closer Billy Wagner, has five hits in eight at-bats in his first two games, including three doubles and three RBIs.
Willie Calhoun prevented the Angels from being shut out with a homer to right-centre in the ninth inning. Zach Neto had three hits.
Gausman (11-8) is 5-0 with a 3.19 ERA in six starts since July 11. The right-hander allowed six hits, walked two and struck out five as he went at least seven innings for the fifth time this season.
“I’ll probably say command, even though I have been walking a lot of guys, but I’m kind of around the strike zone more,” Gausman said about his recent string of starts. “I got into a lot of deep counts, but we did a good job of mixing my fastball up and down, and that kind of opened up the off-speed pitches.”
The Angels had the bases loaded with one out in the second inning, but Gausman was able to escape when he got Jo Adell to ground into a double play.
“We loaded the bases and did exactly what he wanted us to do. He threw a sinker and we rolled into the ground and got a double play and ended the inning when we had the chance to do something,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “Veteran pitcher and he took a young club to school.”
Guerrero drove a hanging sweeper from Angels' starter Carson Fulmer into the Blue Jays' bullpen in left field for a solo shot that extended Toronto's lead to 4-0 in the third inning. It was Guerrero’s second homer in 15 career games at The Big A, the ballpark where his father, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., called home for six seasons during his Hall of Fame career and went deep 89 times.
“I thought he took good swings all night,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of the younger Guerrero. “The game plan against Fulmer was to get him up, and he caught a hanging breaking ball. He is as good as anybody right now around the league.”
Four pitches later, Spencer Horwitz put an elevated fastball into the stands in right-centre, marking the second time this season the Blue Jays have had back-to-back homers. Guerrero has been involved in both.
Guerrero leads the majors with a .464 batting average (39 for 84) and 22 extra-base hits since the break.
The Blue Jays quickly jumped on top with three runs in the first that included Wagner's two-run double into the right-field corner. Toronto got on the board when Ernie Clement hit a hard grounder that went off the third-base bag and into shallow left field to drive in George Springer.
Wagner, who had three hits in his big league debut on Monday, also had a double in the third inning.
Joey Loperfido's RBI single made it 6-0 in the eighth inning.
Springer was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after a replay review stood that Springer was not hit on the right foot on a pitch by Kenny Rosenberg.
Springer got very heated after being ejected, and had to held back by manager John Schneider and Guerrero.
Major League Baseball said in an email that replay official Adrian Johnson could not definitively determine that the ball struck Springer's foot after viewing all relevant angles.
Gonzalez and the umpire crew were not available for comment because a report about the ejection is being submitted to the Commissioner's Office for review.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Angels: C Logan O'Hoppe was back in the lineup after leaving Monday's game due to right knee soreness.
UP NEXT
Blue Jays RHP Jose Berríos (10-9, 3.97 ERA) faces Angels LHP Tyler Anderson (9-10, 2.99 ERA) in the series finale.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
