TORONTO — Louis Varland jumped on the mound at Rogers Centre and turned to face the centre field wall. The Toronto Blue Jays reliever then put his hands on his head as he watched the ball clear that wall, up and over his jumping teammate Daulton Varsho.
Jorge Polanco had just hit a three-run shot to give the Seattle Mariners a three-run lead in Game 2 of the ALCS. Varland pulled his jersey up over his mouth and stood there looking down at the ground as Polanco jogged around the bases.
It was the second time on Sunday night that Seattle went yard to score three, and though the Blue Jays recovered from the first time — that came in the first inning off starter Trey Yesavage, who was credited with the loss — they did not claw back from the 6-3 lead Polanco gave Seattle in the fifth inning, spurring an eventual 10-3 Mariners win.
“I blew the tie, gave up runs in a tight spot, so I’m not happy,” a straight-faced Varland said, shortly after Seattle took a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven series and a disappointed sold-out crowd exited the ballpark.
Sunday’s loss was the second time these playoffs that Varland has given up a three-run shot. The 27-year-old from Minnesota is the only Blue Jays reliever who’s appeared in all six playoff games, and certainly he's been called upon in unenviable situations. Monday night it was with two on and no out, right after Yesavage intentionally walked slugger Cal Raleigh.
Varland punched out Julio Rodriguez, and then up came Polanco, who’d registered a pair of RBIs in Seattle’s Game 1 win. With a 1-1 count, Polanco sent a 98.1 m.p.h fastball 400 feet to regain the lead the Mariners would never relinquish. It was Polanco’s seventh hit of the post-season, and incredible sixth to drive in at least one run. This one drove in three, and it made the crowd of 44,814 fans awfully quiet.
“It could have been a really good pitch, could have been a bad pitch, he still hit it out,” Varland said of the fastball Polanco got a hold of. “So, it really doesn’t matter about the pitch.”
Varland punched out Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez before walking off the field for the night, registering three strikeouts and one hit in one inning of work.
After a tough outing, right-hander Chris Bassitt said the Blue Jays wouldn’t leave any pitcher alone to stew. “We definitely give him some crap and just try to have fun,” said Bassitt, who served up a hitless and scoreless 1.2 innings, striking out two in his first performance in nearly a month after ending the regular season on the IL with a back injury.
“Try to make light of a crappy situation, so to speak. Just because we know he’s going to handle it the right way,” Bassitt added. "And then not only just that, it’s like: ‘We trust you. Even though it was a bad night, we trust you.'”
The last time Varland gave up a three-run shot was in Game 3 of the ALDS, to the first batter he faced that evening. Varland came in during the bottom of the fourth with two on and one out and Aaron Judge up to bat, and Judge sent a 99.7 m.p.h. fastball over the left field fence to tie the game 6-6. Varland retired the next two batters and opened the next inning with a strikeout, but gave up his second home run of the game before he was pulled. In the one-inning outing, Varland was credited with the loss.
Watch the Blue Jays in the ALCS on Sportsnet
The Toronto Blue Jays will face the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the ALCS on Monday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Catch the game on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+.
Broadcast schedule
The next day at Yankee Stadium, Varland started a bullpen game for the Blue Jays, striking out two over 1.1 innings and giving up one hit — to Judge again, but this time just a single. The Blue Jays went on to win 5-2 and punched their ticket to the ALCS.
“We do a good job as a group of just kind of moving on and the next game is the next game,” said Blue Jays closer, Jeff Hoffman. “It doesn’t matter really what happened the last time you were on the mound. What matters is the here and now. I think we do a good job of living that and kind of dying by that as well.”
That will be an integral approach as the Blue Jays try to claw their way back into the series, which shifts to Seattle for Game 3 on Wednesday. They need to win at least two out of three on the road to force Game 6 back in Toronto, scheduled for Sunday.
“We never really have been on an extended stretch where we don’t play good baseball,” Hoffman said. “It’s just what we do. It is kind of in our DNA to play good baseball. I expect us to do that again the next time up.”
2:03