TORONTO -- How big can a win be on May 13? Just watch Daulton Varsho rounding the bases. That will tell you everything you need to know about this walk-off win and everything that’s led to it.
Varsho is the quiet one in the clubhouse, beloved by teammates but rarely found leading the party or dancing on tables. When Varsho’s grand slam soared over the left-field wall in the bottom of the 10th inning to solidify a 5-3 win over the Rays on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre, though, it all came bursting out of him.
Rounding first and running towards second as the celebration erupted around him, Varsho bounced into the air, howling. It looked like he was paying homage to George Springer’s famous celebration from Game 7 of the 2025 ALCS against the Mariners, one of the biggest home runs in this franchise’s history and a celebration we’ll be rewatching forever. That’s Springer’s style, though. If he’s the loud, boisterous older brother, Varsho is the mild-mannered younger brother, never making a mess or causing a ruckus.
That all flies out the window in a moment like this, though, another dreary day turned into an exciting win with the most dramatic moment baseball can offer. Kids grow up dreaming of hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer, scoring the game-winning touchdown … and belting a walk-off grand slam. We haven’t seen one from the Blue Jays since Steve Pearce in 2017, nearly a decade ago.
“That’s big, man. It’s a big win,” John Schneider said. “It was a tough series and it’s easy to think things weren't going our way when they were playing well and pitching well. We just needed a big hit and we got it.”
Inside the Blue Jays’ clubhouse after the game, the tension of the season was gone, the humidity dissolving after a thunderstorm. We can get hyperfixated on all of the small, individual reasons the Blue Jays are just 19-24, from their offensive woes to some uncharacteristic defense and an IL that looks like another roster, but the big picture is so much simpler. This group just needed a big swing, one raucous moment to shake this whole thing up.
“It can loosen up the clubhouse a little bit,” Varsho said, smirking. “Knowing that we needed to have something to happen like that to take a deep breath and relax, it’s a big win.”
“It’s no secret that all of us were grinding a little bit to start the season,” Varsho said. “We’ve been having good at-bats, but kind of having some [bad] luck at times and lining out to people. You’ve got to trust the process. It’s a long season. Hopefully we can get some guys back to help our lineup a little bit. We’ll go out there and give it our all every night.”
Besides, it would have been criminal to allow Dylan Cease’s performance -- seven innings of one-run ball and nine strikeouts -- to go to waste.
“That was great. That’s exciting right there. That’s what the fans come for,” Cease said. “And that’s what we all expect on this team, to be honest.”
The Blue Jays need Varsho to get going on an individual level, too. Outside of Kazuma Okamoto, this lineup is still stuck in a power outage. The Blue Jays are putting the ball in play, but that contact hasn’t been very threatening.
Even Wednesday, the Blue Jays played imperfect baseball. They squandered too many opportunities early, especially with the bases loaded, but none of that matters when someone launches a grand slam at the end of it all. Power can cover up for so many mistakes.
“The more we can take these moments, grasp onto them and feel the fact that we’re playing together, it’s great,” Schneider said. “That was huge for Varsho. It was huge for him.”
Schneider likes to say that "momentum is real." Varsho seems to believe in it, too, and if you stepped inside the Blue Jays’ clubhouse after that win as players and staff lugged heavy bags to the bus with smiles on their faces, you’d believe in it, too. This is the type of win, the Blue Jays hope, that can snowball, that can teach them something.
“You don’t have to be the selfish one to get that hit or make that pitch,” Varsho said. “Trust the guy behind you. Trust everybody in this lineup and this clubhouse. Go out there and give it your all every day. Trust it, because that’s how we win a lot of ball games.”
Wednesday night didn’t save the season, but it’s a start. All the Blue Jays need is a start.