Kevin Gausman brings A-game in Jays win over Astros

Here’s what you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 5-1 win over the Houston Astros at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday night:

Jays starter Kevin Gausman gave up a home run on his second pitch of the game, but locked it in from there and had one of his best starts of the season — which is saying a lot for the guy who leads the league in strikeouts.

The right-hander added a baker’s dozen to his total (matching his career high) over seven dominant innings without issuing a walk. He allowed just three singles after the homer. The Astros’ two-three-four hitters (Jeremy Pena, Yordan Álvarez and Alex Bregman) went 0-for-9, striking out eight times.

It was Gausman’s sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season, more than anyone else in the big leagues.

George Springer grew up a Houston Astro, spent the first seven years of his life there, represented them in three All-Star Games and won a World Series, tainted though it may be. Tuesday night, he delivered the biggest blow of the ball game: a two-run homer to left-centre off rookie Hunter Brown in the third inning that put the Jays on top to stay.

The big fly was one of only five hits for the Jays, but two others went the distance as well. Daulton Varsho clubbed his 11th home run in the fourth inning, to draw within one of Bo Bichette for the team lead. Bichette restored his two-homer advantage with No. 13 in the seventh.

The one Astro who gave Gausman a hard time was rookie Corey Julks. After hitting his first career grand slam Monday night, Julks settled for a pair of singles, but stole second base each time to give him eight on the season. Julks was retired only once, and it took a nice grab of an 89-m.p.h. line drive by Bichette to do it.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness