Gausman tinkered with his mechanics ahead of Friday's start against the Mariners, in which he tied his season high with 10 strikeouts, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reports. "I definitely had a bit of a different delivery today, and that was by design," Gausman said after the outing. "It's something we're trying to get back to what I was doing in 2021. I think it will allow me to be around the zone a little bit more."

EDGE Analysis

The veteran right-hander saw his fastball average 1.4 mph more than it had this season coming into the start, while the movement on his splitter was more effective as a result of the tweaks. "I was getting way too much horizontal movement on my splitter and not enough vertical movement," Gausman said. "I haven't looked at the metrics, but I could tell that it was carrying the zone. To me, that shows the vertical was there on my splitter. Guys are going to swing more at it when it looks like it's going to be in the zone longer." Gausman, who missed much of spring training due to shoulder fatigue, has had an inconsistent beginning to the season and will carry a 4.64 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and 24.0 percent strikeout rate into his next start -- numbers all well below the standard he established during his career resurgence in San Francisco in 2020-21.