The Houston Astros’ bats went quiet again Thursday at Rogers Centre, as Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman turned in one of the best outings of his career. Houston had no answers at the plate and dropped the series finale, 6-0, their sixth shutout loss since August 1, and Yordan Alvarez’s prolonged futility against Gausman reached a new low.
Alvarez entered the matchup 0-for-12 lifetime against Gausman with eight strikeouts and two walks, the most at-bats he had against any pitcher without recording a hit. That drought stretched to 0-for-16 after Alvarez went 0-for-4 with a strikeout, including a called third strike on a low fastball and a pair of weak popups, per Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. In total, he has now struck out nine times in 16 career plate appearances against Gausman.
The Blue Jays’ ace was in complete control throughout. He needed just 100 pitches, 79 of them strikes, to secure his fourth career complete game and second career shutout. He struck out nine, walked one, and retired the final 17 Astros he faced. The only hits allowed were Jeremy Pena’s single to lead off the fourth inning and Carlos Correa’s follow-up single. Gausman promptly escaped by inducing a popup from Jose Altuve and striking out Jesus Sanchez to strand both runners.
Offensively, Toronto gave Gausman more than enough support early. George Springer opened the first inning with an infield single before scoring on Nathan Lukes’ RBI double. Moments later, Addison Barger lifted a high popup into shallow right field that fell between Sanchez, Pena, and Altuve for a run-scoring double.
Davis Schneider extended the lead in the second with his 11th home run of the season and later added a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score Daulton Varsho, who had tripled. Barger finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs, while Lukes and Varsho also collected extra-base hits.
Astros starter Cristian Javier allowed four runs on six hits across six innings, striking out six. His ERA ticked upward after a second straight loss despite retiring his final nine batters of the outing. Reliever Lance McCullers Jr. surrendered two more runs in the eighth to put the game further out of reach.
The defeat has dropped the Astros to 79-68, with their division lead over the Seattle Mariners reduced to just a half-game. Houston has now lost four straight series, going 4-8 in that stretch against the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, and Blue Jays.
Since August 1, the Astros have averaged just 3.84 runs per game, the lowest mark in the majors over that span, and scored three or fewer runs in 20 of 38 contests.
