Blue Jays Clutch Plays: A Big Week for Louis Varland

[Matthew Creally]

Welcome back to Blue Jays Clutch Plays, a recurring post that highlights the six most pivotal plays (three pitching, three hitting) from the past week of Blue Jays baseball, according to MLB's win probability model. Click here to read last week's edition.

At long last, the Blue Jays finally started to look like themselves again this week, finishing off their lengthy road trip with a series win in Anaheim and then taking two of three from the Guardians at home. This is despite their nightmarish injury bug refusing to go away, as Nathan Lukes wound up on the IL after pulling his hamstring running out of the box on Friday. Still, they fought through it and have been getting consistent timely hitting for about a week now, a good sign ahead of their upcoming matchup against the Red Sox. Here are the moments that mattered most from this past week.

Pitching

3. Louis Varland: Brayan Rocchio Strikeout, Top 9, 4/25 (+12.6% wPA)

In his first inning of work since Jeff Hoffman was officially removed from the closer role, Louis Varland found himself in an immensely precarious situation. Toronto led 5-2 when he entered the game, but a string of great at-bats by Cleveland brought the Guardians to within two runs with the bases loaded and just 1 out. Varland struck out Bo Naylor, and then, with the count at 2-2, he dialed it up to 98 to put Brayan Rocchio away and seal the win.

2. Patrick Corbin: Steven Kwan GIDP, Top 5, 4/26 (+14.8% wPA)

Unfortunately, Angel Martínez would double in the tying run immediately after this, but the things that Patrick Corbin has done for this team over the past few weeks shouldn't be discounted. In the fifth inning on Sunday, he got Steven Kwan, one of the best bat-to-ball and line drive hitters in the game, to roll a perfectly placed front-door sinker directly to Davis Schneider at second base for the twin killing. Corbin failed to finish the frame, but the bullpen luckily picked him up on the way to a series win.

1. Louis Varland: Nolan Schanuel GIDP, Bot 9, 4/21 (+34.0% wPA)

We have a new frontrunner for Clutch Pitching Play of the Season. With the winning run on first base and one out in the ninth inning, Varland came into a bases-loaded situation and promptly induced a game-ending double play from Nolan Schanuel. Soon after, Leo Morgenstern put out a great piece that emphasizes just how rare and impressive a one-pitch, two-out save is, especially for Varland, who had essentially no experience closing games before last week. According to win probability added, this would've been the second-most pivotal play of 2025 for the Jays' pitching staff. 

Hitting

3. Ernie Clement: RBI Single, Top 7, 4/22 (+18.6% wPA)

This at-bat beautifully personifies the essence of Ernie Clement as a hitter. With two strikes against him, he reached for a well-located sweeper just off the corner down and away and snuck it up the middle to tie the game. The Blue Jays would give up four runs in the bottom half, but this was a huge hit at the time. They entered the top of the seventh down 3-0 and tied it against the bullpen after Angels ace José Soriano was removed following yet another quality start. 

2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 2-run HR, Top 3, 4/20 (+19.4% wPA)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been on fire lately, but he hasn't quite tapped into his home run power on a consistent basis. Last Monday, though, he got a changeup from Reid Detmers that caught a little too much of the plate and walloped it deep into the southern California sky. The pitch, the swing, and the result were quite reminiscent of his moonshot off Carlos Rodón in Game 3 of the 2025 ALDS. This one propelled the Jays to a series-opening win that would set the tone for the week ahead.

1. Lenyn Sosa: 2-RBI Double, Top 8, 4/21 (+30.7% wPA)

The newcomer Lenyn Sosa made his mark in the Angels series, slamming a pinch-hit double off the wall in right to break a 1-1 tie in the eighth inning on Tuesday. This is exactly what the coaching staff hopes he'll be able to do at the plate: come up with a big hit off the other team's best lefty reliever. Sosa is a very aggressive hitter, and Drew Pomeranz probably wanted this fastball to end up a little more outside than it did. The former White Sox were all over this game, as Eloy Jiménez later singled Sosa home to make it a three-run inning.

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