Two pitchers get an opportunity to remind their former team of what they are missing when right-handers Kevin Gausman and Jordan Hicks duel as the Toronto Blue Jays and the host San Francisco Giants conclude a three-game series Thursday afternoon. The teams split the first two games of the interleague set. The Blue Jays got even with a 10-6 shellacking on Wednesday after watching the Giants celebrate a walk-off wild pitch that ended 4-3 win on Tuesday.
The decisive game features Gausman and Hicks, teammates in Toronto for the final two months of the 2023 season. Gausman left the Giants for the Blue Jays as a free agent after the 2021 campaign, and Hicks was picked up by Toronto in a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals at last year's in-season trade deadline.
Gausman (6-8, 4.64 ERA) signed with the Giants as a free agent before the 2020 season and pitched two years in San Francisco, going 17-9 with a 3.00 ERA.
He was a National League All-Star in 2021, a season in which he went 14-6 with a 2.81 ERA and tied for the major league lead in starts with 33. The two-time All-Star admitted over the weekend that he recently returned to something he did in his pitch delivery during his successful days as a Giant.
"It's something we're trying to get back to what I was doing in 2021," said Gausman, who owns a 94-99 lifetime record. "I think it will allow me to be around the zone a little bit more." The 33-year-old veteran will be pitching in San Francisco for the first time since leaving.
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