Toronto Blue Jays' Daulton Varsho is doused after defeating the Boston Red Sox at home on Thursday.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
A Daulton Varsho grand slam, and a hot performance from the bullpen helped the Blue Jays avoid a sweep by the Boston Red Sox Thursday and retain their spot atop the American League East.
Varsho’s sixth-inning slam woke the Jays from an offensive slumber and jumpstarted the team toward a 6-1 win over Boston.
It snapped a two-game losing streak for Toronto and kept the Jays even with the New York Yankees – both 91-68 – for the division lead in the final three days of the regular season.
“Felt like it was just taking the monkey off our back a little bit with the past couple days,” said Varsho. “I think everybody had that pressure kind of feel on them, so today it was like, ‘let’s go, just play our game, have fun.”
Toronto’s pitchers had six scoreless innings, affording Toronto’s offence the time to get going. Rather than opening with a starter, the Jays used a series of pitchers on Thursday who usually come out of the bullpen. That group – including Louis Varland and Eric Lauer – put on a show.
The bullpen crew did not allow Boston a baserunner in more than six innings – with some help from the defence. Varland started the night and set the tone, as he retired the first six batters he faced, including three strikeouts, hurling his high-90s fastballs.
Varsho celebrates at the plate with Anthony Santander, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger as he hits a grand slam in the sixth inning of Thursday's game.Cole Burston/Getty Images
Then Lauer entered in the third inning, and retired 10 straight, forcing them mostly to ground out and fly out, plus a pair of punchouts. Jays left fielder Nathan Lukes helped with a sensational diving catch. Lauer pitched 3 1/3 innings,treating every hitter like it was his last of night.
Yariel Rodriguez was the third pitcher in – retiring two more. The combined perfect performance by Toronto’s pitchers ended in the seventh inning, when Boston finally got its first hits of the night and broke the shutout.
Braydon Fisher, Seranthony Dominguez, Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman also pitched for Toronto.
“It’s good to get back in the win column,” said Laurer. “Everybody was involved. Everybody did something great. Var did something really great. Just a good team win, a good morale booster.”
The Jays had been struggling at the plate in recent days. They hadn’t scored more than a single run in six of their seven previous games. It looked like this was set to be another of those.
The Jays had left five men stranded early in Thursday’s game before the Varsho blast. Nathan Lukes hit a triple but they couldn’t get him home. In the third inning, Anthony Santander came to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a ball into right field that looked oh-so-close to being a grand slam, before it fell foul. The Jays were getting plenty of traffic on the bases, but couldn’t score them.
Toronto's George Springer celebrates in the dug out on Thursday after hitting a two-run home run off Boston Red Sox pitcher Zack Kelly.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Finally Varsho brought enormous relief when he crushed his fifth career grand slam in the sixth, deep into right centre field, scoring Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Addison Barger and Santander, as the Toronto faithful roared its loudest roar in three days.
“It takes a big swing sometimes,” said Toronto manager John Schneider. “To kind of get you out of the out of the funk that you’re in.”
George Springer followed with a two-run shot just minutes later, the joy oozing as he ran the bases and enhanced the lead.
The loss stalled the Red Sox (87-72) from clinching a playoff spot.
On Friday, the Tampa Rays will visit Rogers Centre for the final three-game set of the regular season. The Jays plans to start Shane Bieber Friday, then Trey Yesavage and Kevin Gausman over the weekend.