KANSAS CITY – Jed Hoyer saw his trade-deadline work flash before his eyes Friday night.
The team president got aggressive at the deadline to bring in a couple top-of-the-rotation pitchers. Then the headline acquisition, righty starter Kevin Gausman, took a line drive off his ankle, in his very first inning in a Cubs uniform.
Thankfully for Gausman and the Cubs, the veteran righty was OK, staying in the game after a visit from the trainer and some warm-up throws.
“I got lucky,” Gausman said, “it hit me half on my shoe, half on my leg. I’ll take that.
“I’ll put some tape on it, put some ice on it the next couple days. I’ll be all right.”
Gausman was more than all right in his Cubs debut.
After a shaky first inning in which he walked the leadoff man, allowed two hits and gave up a run, he was almost perfect, surrendering just a solo homer and one other hit, retiring 19 of the final 21 batters he faced in seven strong innings and helping his new team to its fifth straight win, a 6-4 victory over the Royals.
“It seemed like he got stronger as he went,” catcher Carson Kelly said. “All in all, just a really, really good start. He’s nasty, he really is.
“He’s a huge piece. The intensity that he brings, the experience that he has, how to navigate a lineup, how to continue to take it to them, that’s something that’s very valuable for us.”
Prior to arriving in a trade with the Blue Jays, Gausman’s numbers weren’t as strong as they had been, though the Cubs weren’t concerned about his ERA jumping from 3.59 last season to 4.38 this year.
Gausman showed Friday that he’s still the guy who delivered in the postseason last fall.
While an early-August game against the last-place Royals is hardly the World Series, he looked like that kind of pitcher, a great sign for a Cubs team with championship-level aspirations.
“I noticed it right away coming over here, the excitement of the team, of the guys, of each other,” Gausman said. “It was nice to finally get out there and feel like I was part of the team.”
“We’re here to win baseball games,” Kelly said. “He’s a winning pitcher, a winning player. That’s something that’s going to help us along the way.”