Blue Jays’ Gausman pulled early after giving up six runs in another tough outing

Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman had another rough outing to begin the year on Friday.

The right-hander pitched only 3.2 innings after giving up six earned runs on 10 hits against the Colorado Rockies.

This high-scoring showing is his second such short start this season, as he gave up a brutal five earned runs on four hits in 1.1 innings against the New York Yankees on April 6.

Gausman has an 11.57 ERA through three starts.

The Blue Jays were down 6-2 when manager John Schneider replaced Gausman with Paolo Espino.

He had a solid start to the game, taking out the first three Rockies in order with two flyouts and a strikeout on Kris Bryant. The Rockies batters started to find some better contact in the second inning, tagging him for three hits and a run.

It started to unravel more in the third with four of the first five batter notching hits on the righty, leading to a three-run inning.

In the fourth, he gave up a two-run double to Kris Bryant – only his fifth hit and second extra-base hit this season – and would promptly get the hook from manager Schneider.

Gausman threw 78 pitches, 54 of them for strikes. Though he induced 18 swings and misses, he couldn’t prevent the hard contact on the balls that were hit, as according to MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson, six balls were hit 100+ m.p.h.

The 33-year-old dealt with right shoulder fatigue during spring training. He appeared only once in the pre-season, pitching three innings and giving up one run.

The Blue Jays are in the bottom 10 in MLB in team ERA, with a 4.90 ERA on the season coming into Friday’s game. They’re also last in MLB in FIP (fielding independent pitching) at 5.56.

More from Sportsnet

Yuriel Rodriguez’s arrival hints at pitching changes for Blue Jays

Jays’ Manoah, Romano, Swanson all to pitch Saturday for Buffalo