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Daulton Varsho isn’t the reason why the Blue Jays have taken baseball by storm.
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He is, however, one of the reasons why the club sits one win away from matching the entire win total from last season.
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Saturday against the visiting Texas Rangers, Varsho appeared in his 36th game of the season, which began with Varsho on the injured list following off-season shoulder surgery.
Varsho would hurt his hamstring in late May to further compromise his availability.
When he has played, it’s hard not to notice Varsho.
He doesn’t have the profile as some of his teammates and fans may never forget the deal that brought Varsho to town from Arizona.
The guy can play and he has delivered.
Varsho hit his 13th home run in the Jays’ 14-2 rout of the Rangers to give him 34 RBI on the season.
The game was so out of hand that the Rangers had former Blue Jay Roddy Tellez pitch the seventh and eighth innings as memories of Toronto’s stay in Colorado began to flow.
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Tyler Heineman pitched the ninth for the Jays.
The following are three takeaways from a convincing Blue Jays win that assured the club of a series win over the Rangers with a sweep at stake if a win is achieved Sunday, a day the Jays once again played in front of a full house in excess of 42,000.
1. Straw that stirs the drink
With all due respect to Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, Myles Straw has turned into the do-it-all player who has come up big in big spots at the plate and made some big catches in the outfield.
Remember the outcry when the Jays acquired Straw from Cleveland, a move essentially designed to free up international signing bonus space to pursue Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki.
If anything, club ownership has shown it has the financial means to forget any perceived bad signing.
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Straw isn’t elite, but he’s no stiff.
Far from it for that matter.
In fact, he’s good and the perfect piece the Jays have used in the bottom of the order, which has stepped up.
His signing has actually been very good.
In his first at-bat Saturday, Straw went deep for a three-run blast to give the Jays a 4-0 lead.
It was Straw’s third homer of the season.
In his second at-bat, Straw went deep for the second time.
Through three innings, Straw had recorded his first-career multi-homer game, while driving in a career-high five runs in setting a career high in homers (4).
Move over Mr. October.
As for the money the Jays received from the Guardians, reports are that the club has signed South Korean pitching prospect Seo-jun Moon.
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Straw did get a hit off Tellez with two outs in the eighth to give Straw a four-hit game to tie his career high.
2. By George, he’s back
Everyone knew George Springer would be back following his concussion sustained in Baltimore late last month.
But not many knew the Jays would have the veteran hit leadoff, a role he has not had since the next-to-last game in 2024.
His productivity was usually felt in the middle of the order.
The thinking behind having Springer leadoff was to break up the righty-righty-righty look when Springer hit second, followed by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.
Saturday, Springer struck out looking on an inside pitch that was off the plate.
He struck out in his second at-bat.
Springer led off the fourth inning in an 8-1 game and would ground out to third base.
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He beat out an infield hit in the fifth to load bases with the Jays comfortably ahead 10-1.
3. Lauer decision
Maybe the Jays have extracted all that is possible from LHP Eric Lauer and then some.
He has clearly emerged as one of the biggest surprise stories of the season on a team dotted with surprises.
With Shane Bieber poised to make his return to a big-league mound, pitching decisions await.
One will involve Lauer, whose days as a starter might be numbered.
Saturday was Lauer’s 14th start of the season and his 20th appearance for the Blue Jays.
He took a 2.82 ERA into the afternoon.
Lauer’s command was off and his pitch count reached 67 through three innings.
When he started the third, Lauer had a 6-0 lead.
There are a handful of off days in the near future that almost precludes the Jays from going with a six-man rotation knowing the club’s established starters need the ball every fifth day.
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Whatever role the Jays have in store for Lauer, assuming a change is in the offing, it does speak to the luxury the club has been afforded.
Lauer retired the Rangers in order in the fourth, including two strikeouts.
He was the beneficiary of a great defensive play from Davis Schneider, who had earlier committed a fielding error, in left field that saved Lauer a run.
When Lauer started the sixth inning, the Jays were leading 11-1.
He gave up a leadoff walk on Lauer’s 102nd and final pitch on the afternoon.
Up next
What’s known is that Jose Berrios and Nathan Eovaldi are scheduled to start for their respective teams in the series finale (1:37 p.m.); the big unknown is whether Jays manager John Schneider will officially pick a date for Bieber to start his first game for the club; if history is any indication, Schneider will announce his rotation as the Jays head to Pittsburgh for a three-game set that begins Monday; Thursday is an off day before the Jays are in Miami for a weekend series against the Marlins.
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