After two ho-hum starts to begin the season, Gausman was great on Wednesday, striking out 10 batters and walking none. The Red Sox had just two extra base hits all day and couldn’t hit much of anything hard. However, we do have to pour a little bit of cold water on this. Gausman’s splitter still had just four whiffs on 19 swings and had just a 39 percent zone rate. Almost all of Gausman’s damage came on his four-seam fastball, which had 13 whiffs on 34 swings and also a 40 percent CSW. Yet, Gausman’s fastball was also down two mph and averaged just 92.8 mph on the night. A lot of this feels like it can be attributed to an incredibly cold weather game in Boston on Wednesday. We would still be cautious in rolling out Gausman next week against the Braves.

Gausman allowed just two hits. Unfortunately, one was a two-run homer from Pete Alonso, who managed to drill a low-and-away fastball out to right. Gausman, whose velocity fluctuates more than that of most starters, was down some today, averaging 94 mph with his fastball, and he actually went without a strikeout for just the fifth time in his starting career. We wouldn’t read too much into it; Gausman isn’t at all likely to reemerge as a top-10 fantasy starter, but he should be solid enough to be useful in mixed leagues.

The final line looks very good, but it wasn’t necessarily easy for Gausman in this one. He was good at limiting traffic on the basepaths despite the Orioles making him work hard in most at-bats. They rarely chased his splitter and forced him to spot his fastball, which he often did as his command was solid per usual. It was just obviously not a return to his 2023 form. He’s scheduled to face the Nationals in his next start.

Gausman will be followed by Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to close out the season-opening series against the division-rival Orioles. It’ll be Bowden Francis taking the ball on Monday night to kick off a three-game series against the Nationals with Opening Day starter José Berríos following afterwards.