Daulton Varsho was just trying to make contact — "short and sweet to the ball" he later said — but he ended up having the biggest hit of the Toronto Blue Jays' season.
Varsho launched a grand slam in the sixth inning to lift the Blue Jays over the Boston Red Sox 6-1 on Thursday night as Toronto moved one step closer to winning the American League East title.
Although the New York Yankees also won Thursday, beating the Chicago White Sox 5-3 to stay tied with Toronto atop the division, the Blue Jays reduced their magic number to three.
Any combination of Toronto wins and New York losses that add up to three will give the Blue Jays the East title. Whichever team wins the division gets a bye to the AL Division Series and home-field advantage to boot.
"I think everybody wants to feel this pressure at the end of the season," said Varsho. "You want to feel that because that means you're in it.
"It's one of those things where you either can crumble and fall and not play well or we can be us and know that throughout the season, we've played really good baseball, and just keep trusting it."
It's been a hard nine days for the Blue Jays as they have lost six of eight games with a day off mixed in. Toronto's previous win, an 8-5 triumph in Kansas City on Sunday, clinched a playoff berth but all those losses evaporated a five-game lead in the AL East.
Varsho said he and Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins were talking about the season spinning out of control earlier Thursday.
"A lot of people didn't pick us to win the division, and we exceeded everybody's standards, and now it's like everybody's holding us to that standard. Now we've got to win a division," said Varsho. "It's like, well, screw it. We already have house money. Let's just keep going, keep playing the way that we've always played.
"If we don't win the division, who cares? We're a really tough team to beat, and we've got the pieces to do it."
George Springer had a two-run homer in the same inning as Toronto (91-68) got a clutch performance from its bullpen.
Louis Varland, normally a reliever, started the game and pitched two scoreless innings. He was followed to the mound by Eric Lauer, Yariel Rodriguez, Braydon Fisher, Seranthony Dominguez, Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman.
Varland, Lauer and Rodriguez combined for six perfect innings on a designated bullpen day. The three relievers' solid outing came hours after right-hander Jose Berrios, a starter who was recently moved to the bullpen, was put on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation.
Fellow starter Chris Bassitt got a cortisone shot in his back on Wednesday to deal with his inflammation and will return to throwing on Friday. He was placed on the IL on Saturday.
"It's always tough in a bullpen game where it's like, 'All right, you're counting on a lot of guys (having) a lot of good innings,'" said Lauer, whose 3 1/3 innings of work were the most of any Blue Jays pitcher. "The fact that we were able to all go out there and do our jobs is huge.
"I think it just set us up and put us in a good position to win."
Shane Bieber (3-2) takes the mound for Toronto on Friday as the Blue Jays open their final three-game series of the regular season. Adrian Houser (8-4) gets the start for the Tampa Bay Rays (77-82).
New York will host the Baltimore Orioles (75-84) in the opener of their three-game series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.
