It wasn’t that long ago, all things considered, that Robert Gasser was the shortest player on his Southern California travel ball team, the Sierra Valley Storm, struggling in his early efforts as a pitcher.
It wasn’t long ago that Gasser’s coach at Oak Ridge High School considered cutting him from the varsity team during tryouts his freshman year.
Not long ago, Gasser was bombed as a freshman at the University of New Mexico, a difficult but necessary challenge that gave him the rude awakening he ultimately needed. forcing me to go pitch the following year in college.
Friday night on the mound at American Family Field, as Gasser, ready and in complete control, made his major league debut, those struggles seemed like eons ago as the left-hander battled his way through six innings who made up the night of his life on the biggest stage of his life.
Making his first start in the big leagues, the 24-year-old pitched six shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals while allowing just two hits, no walks and striking out four. In doing so, he became the fifth pitcher in Brewers history to throw at least six scoreless innings in his MLB debut and only the second to allow three or fewer baserunners in more than six frames.
A fifth point from Gasser’s offense turned the game into a blowout, ultimately won by Milwaukee, 11-2. This not only gave Gasser a first victory, but also allowed him to soak up every second of the rest of the night once manager Pat Murphy shook his hand after the sixth inning.
A toothless, ear-to-ear smile on Gasser’s face as he stood on the top step of the dugout said it all.
“It was awesome. Especially ending on strikeouts, it was everything I could have dreamed of,” Gasser said. “Playing in front of that many people and probably the biggest game of my life until now, it was great.”
Robert Gasser was in control from his very first throw
From the moment Gasser first touched the side of third base Friday, he did so with conviction and confidence. Even though he rose to become a top prospect in the minors, he was tested in battle.
“It wasn’t easy for Rob for a while,” Gasser’s former coach Ryan Rodriguez said. “You look at him now and assume he was always the best player on his team, but there were many years there where that wasn’t always the case. He had to work for it. He just continued to improve, learn more about his game, and as he developed and got more serious about the game, you saw him start to take off.
Gasser took off from the jump on Friday. Starting with a perfect eight-pitch first inning that included his first career strikeout on a sweeper against Lars Nootbaar, Gasser had the outward appearance of a wily veteran.
“When he was out there, he didn’t see names on the back of jerseys like a lot of guys would,” outfielder Sal Frelick said. “That’s exactly how he does business.”
Gasser’s foot was fully on the pedal for the remainder of the course.
A nifty double play converted by second baseman Brice Turang got him through the second inning, then he made some big throws to strand a runner at second in the third. From there, the Cardinals were hitless over the final three frames, which Gasser punctuated by striking out Nootbaar for the third time with a sweeper.
“Two different fastballs, good sweeper,” Nootbaar said. “I thought he did a good job of mixing it all together well. This sweeper had different shapes today, and I thought he didn’t miss too many times, so I thought he did a good job.
Robert Gasser had to wait a long time to get his chance in the big leagues
Gasser’s debut has been a long time in the making, and not even specifically because of the ups and downs he went through years ago. He stayed on the doorstep of the majors for a long time, certainly much longer than most top prospects expect, and made 33 starts in Class AAA. Gasser finished the 2022 season in Nashville after being acquired by Milwaukee from San Diego as the headliner of the Josh Hader trade, spending all of 2023 there while earning co-pitcher of the year honors from the Brewers’ minor league team, then made three more starts in AAA while recovering from a bout with bone spurs that kept him from starting this season.
“I think Gas came in with a little chip on his shoulder,” Murphy said. “Like, ‘I should have been here last year, in my mind, and they made me wait.’ » Maybe that’s something we can think about sometimes. Maybe we’ll have to keep some guys waiting. Gas is a guy who gets talked about as a minor league player. It’s great to see when they get here that they pay their dues and they have a little advantage.
For a pitcher whose last name lends itself to being nicknamed “Gas,” it’s the sweeper that is Gasser’s best pitch. Against the Cardinals, it was untouchable. He threw it anytime, anywhere and to anyone. Gasser generated seven of his 10 total whiffs on the night with the sweeper and 44 percent of the 36 he threw were either a called strike or a swinging strike.
To cap off his outing on Nootbaar’s strikeout, Gasser threw a sweeper with a remarkable 20 inches of horizontal movement to render the Cardinals outfielder helpless.
“That sweeper kind of had a little more movement than the guys anticipated,” Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said. “That first time, a lot of guys came up and said the same thing. The movement was good. It was kind of awesome and gave us a hard time.
Gasser threw 17 consecutive no-ball strikes against six different batters to end the game. Just when we thought he might be tired — he hadn’t gone five innings in a game since his last outing in Nashville last year — he found more. And he did it without throwing arguably his second-best pitch, his cutter, even once, because he never shook catcher William Contreras once.
“The plan was really to go out there and challenge the hitters,” Gasser said. “It wasn’t about hitting a bunch of guys, or being perfect, or trying to be perfect. It was just a case of throwing it in the middle and seeing what happened.
As Gasser left the mound after his final punch against Nootbaar, he slammed his glove with his left hand and looked out at the crowd, taking it all in. He was pumped up, just like his teammates.
“I was willing to go through a wall for this kid,” Frelick said. “I think it’s just our culture and everyone feels the same way.”
It’s a start Gasser won’t soon forget. The same goes for the more than 25,000 people in the park.
“I thought he did a really, really good job,” outfielder Christian Yelich said. “It was pretty impressive how he went out there and executed what he wanted to do. It seemed like he had his emotions under control and was able to do what he wanted. It’s huge for him. Really happy.”
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