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Blue Jays manager John Schneider raves about Kevin Gausman: 'He's one of the best pitchers in the game'

Kevin Gausman gave the Blue Jays exactly what they needed on Tuesday, giving the bullpen a much-needed breather. After the game, Toronto manager John Schneider couldn't say enough about what his ace provides every time he takes the mound.

Video Transcript

- Hey, John. Kevin Gosling seems to have this figured out. How does his personality and his demeanor translate into pitching in moments where you really need him?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It's always the same, which is a credit to him. It's just kind of-- I mean, you look at his last outing against these guys, and his demeanor was the same after that first inning as it was after he finished the seventh today. He's just always the same, which you can't really speak highly enough about. It's workmanlike. It's professional. He's one of the best pitchers in the game.

- And he is a guy who you trusted to go beyond 100, sometimes well beyond 100 pitches each time. It's obvious with the results, but what about his consistency makes it so that you can trust him in a spot that some guys still have to earn?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah. I think the way he takes care of himself. He's been around for a while and understands when he's on normal rest, when he has an extra day, kind of adjusts his work accordingly, but still is pretty consistent. So you look at that. You look at his next time through, what rest he's going to be, on and you kind of watch this stuff. And a lot of times, he's as good as anybody that we have available. So it makes it pretty easy to trust him.

- John, as far as his pitches from when he was in Houston, what was the difference tonight in the splitter, in the fastball how he was executing?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah. They had a really good plan against him the first time. I think his splitter was carrying the zone a little bit more. He had better velo than he had that time in Houston, and he snuck some heaters down in the zone when he had to. So, again, I think he's evolved a little bit this year and kind of taken that next step forward into pretty much elite category to where, yeah, everyone knows that the split is a really, really good pitch, and he's taking his shots with his heater down in the zone when he needs to.

- From afar, you can kind of take it for granted that he's going to give you maybe seven innings, but particularly in the context of guys had to get 26 outs from your bullpen last night, what's the importance of him being able to go seven?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, it's huge. A lot of times that a day like yesterday can kind of put you in a little bit of a bind for a couple of days, and I think what Kev did tonight kind of reset us a little bit. And again, I think that's what really good pitchers do. They understand the situation that they're in. And, again, kind of going back to Keith's point, he doesn't put too much pressure on himself. It's just the same. So it wasn't like he was trying to do more than he should have, but it really, really lines us up well going forward.