Kevin Gausman shines as Blue Jays complete historically lopsided sweep of Rockies

Bennett Durando, The Denver Post on Aug 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — Even in a clash of Coloradan aces, Colorado ended up on the losing end.

By a lot.

Kevin Gausman (Grandview High School, class of 2010) pitched seven strong innings to outlast Kyle Freeland (Thomas Jefferson High, 2011), and the Rockies’ bullpen limped to a 20-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday, capping off a historically lopsided sweep at Coors Field.

“We could’ve made a couple plays. Defense, you know, was kind of not up to our standards,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said afterward. “No, I’m joking.”

Toronto outscored its hosts a combined 45-6 in the series, leaving the Rockies (30-84) on a four-game skid as they prepare for a six-game road trip through Arizona and St. Louis. They gave up 13 Toronto home runs in the series and 63 hits — the most ever compiled in baseball history over the course of a three-game series.

“Pretty absurd,” Gausman said.

“It’s one game. It’s one series,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “We played a really good series against the Pirates. Don’t forget about that. It was, like, three days ago. It just doesn’t flip negatively like that. Sometimes you go through a three-game set where it’s no good, and that’s what we did.”

Colorado’s previous franchise record for most hits allowed in a three-game set was 54. The Blue Jays soared past that with four consecutive doubles to lead off the ninth inning. Eight runs later, they had taken a red pen to the history books with a round of batting practice against catcher Austin Nola, who last pitched in high school and whose closest relation to professional pitching is his brother in Philadelphia, Aaron Nola.

“I’m sure I’m gonna get a text from him,” Austin said, lamenting his new career ERA of 72.00. “I’ll just blame it on (the hitter-friendly altitude of) Colorado or something.”

Schaeffer had no issue with the visitors teeing off in a game that was already out of reach.

“We put ourselves in a position for a 12-1 game and days on days of using bullpen guys,” he said. “Shoot, the Blue Jays earned that. They earned that, to do what they wanted to do.”

As for baseball history, the previous hits record for a three-game series occurred in June of 1950 between the St. Louis Browns and Boston Red Sox.

The Rockies are now allowing 10.8 runs per game in their last 11 and 13.2 runs in August so far (five games).

Sick as a dog during his last start in Cleveland, Freeland appeared to be in a better physical state as he took the mound Wednesday. Nonetheless, Schaeffer arrived at the ballpark anticipating he would need to monitor the lefty on a hot and sunny afternoon.

“I don’t think he was quite over the sickness. It was continuing to take a toll,” Schaeffer said. “That’s not an excuse. That’s just saying how it is. But I thought he competed well.”

Freeland almost made it through five respectable innings against his fellow Denver-area native, but he succumbed to a pair of two-out rallies. Ernie Clement and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled to get things started innocuously in Toronto’s third. Then Bo Bichette followed with an opposite-field blast for his third homer of the series.

Again in the fifth, Freeland got the first two outs only to surrender a two-run triple to Nathan Lukes. That was all for the Rockies veteran, who was tagged with a sixth earned run after Schaeffer removed him. It oddly mirrored a 2021 matchup at Coors Field between the two locals, when Gausman went seven innings and Freeland gave up seven runs in a 10-5 Giants win.

That was the year Gausman entered baseball’s elite class of aces, making his first All-Star Game, finishing sixth in NL Cy Young voting and paving his way to a free-agent contract north of $100 million. He joined the Blue Jays that offseason and has been a steady hand for them ever since.

His latest homecoming began ominously, but he quickly denied the Rockies their brief glimpse at victory. Ezequiel Tovar doubled in a first-inning run to give them a lead, then Gausman limited them to only one hit over his last six innings of work. He struck out eight and walked two.

“Unfortunately, there’s not many guys from Denver specifically. … Any time we face each other, it’s kind of fun,” Gausman said. “We were talking about it yesterday. We definitely respect the crap out of each other and kind of realize how hard it is to play baseball here.”

Estrada, Arcia injury updates

The Rockies placed second baseman Thairo Estrada on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with a right hamstring strain, marking his third IL stint this year. The team called up Adael Amador from Triple-A Albuquerque to start in Estrada’s place after he landed awkwardly on the first base bag trying to beat out a double play on Tuesday.

Schaeffer said Estrada will undergo an MRI, as will infielder Orlando Arcia, who also left Tuesday’s game with an injury. Arcia didn’t play in the series finale, but the team’s hope is that his elbow injury is less severe.