TORONTO — Chris Bassitt’s hair, his face and his ALCS champions t-shirt were all saturated with beer when Louis Varland gleefully added to it, pouring another full can on his teammate’s head as they stood just below a disco ball that hung from the ceiling outside the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse.
Bassitt was blinking through the liquid as it trickled down his face, standing in his socked feet as music blasted while he and the rest of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated their biggest win in more than three decades, and while the veteran pitcher reflected on what he personally had done to help accomplish that feat.
“Yeah, I’m just happy I didn’t blow it,” Bassitt said, laughing. “I mean, they put a lot of damn pressure on me.”
As fellow starter Kevin Gausman pointed out, when Bassitt entered Game 7 of the ALCS in the top of the eighth: “It was probably the biggest spot of the year.”
Bassitt ran out of that bullpen at the Rogers Centre not long after George Springer cranked a three-run shot to put the Blue Jays up 4-3, giving Toronto its first lead of the night against the Seattle Mariners. Then Bassitt had to help preserve it in a game that would either see his team’s season end, or continue onto the World Series.
That was all in the hands of a veteran pitcher who made just his second appearance this post-season — his first was a mop-up session late in Game 2’s 10-3 loss. Bassitt’s last appearance before that was mid-September, before back inflammation landed him on the IL. To boot, he’s a starter, and has been for most of his career.
“I was just thinking like, hey, I’d been a closer for a long time before I became a starter,” the 36-year-old Bassitt said. “So I’m very grateful for that experience.” As he ran onto the field, Bassitt reminded himself: “Keep your emotions in check,” and “focus on quality pitches.”
Bassitt’s first pitch was a sinker that Randy Arozarena jumped on, lining out. Then he struck out Eugenio Suarez with a curveball. To finish up his clinical three up, three down performance, Bassitt got J.P. Crawford to ground out to short stop. Even before Andres Gimenez made the throw over to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first, Bassitt was already walking off the mound, doing a fist pump on his way to the dugout.
The right-hander threw 10 pitches, and just like that the Blue Jays were three outs away from the team’s first World Series berth in a whopping 32 years.
Heck, it sure didn’t look like it was going that direction when Gausman, Toronto’s ace, entered the game in relief in the top of the seventh. The Blue Jays trailed 3-1, and had managed just a pair of hits since the second inning in a game Seattle had led all night.
“I wasn’t calm at all,” a grinning Gausman said, wearing a beer-soaked tank top, and goggles on his head. “My heart rate was through the roof. I drank probably one too many coffees and I was fired up. I wanted to get out there and slam the door.
“I got lucky it worked out.”
Gausman’s relief outing wasn’t quite as tidy as Bassitt’s. The starter started by walking Victor Robles, Seattle’s ninth batter, with the very dangerous top of the order coming up next.
But Gausman got Julio Rodriguez to ground into a double play, then intentionally walked slugger Cal Raleigh, accidentally walked Josh Naylor, and got a huge groundout from Jorge Polanco to end the inning, with the Blue Jays in no worse shape than they were when he came in, still trailing 3-1.
“As you saw it was a little hard for me to find the zone, but you know, I made a big pitch and got a double play and made another play to get a big out,” Gausman said. “But I was pretty fired up — that was cool.”
Bassitt started warming up shortly after Gausman entered the game, and then 10 pitches later, he joined his teammates in the dugout, having preserved the 4-3 lead they’d hang on until the end.
“For Bass to do that in that moment with a one-run lead — that takes really big balls, honestly,” Gausman said. “He hadn’t pitched in a little while, the place was rockin’ too. Before the game I don’t know if he thought he was gonna pitch either, so there’s a lot of different elements to it. But he’s been great since he’s been here, and he’s been that dog we can rely on.”
The term “dog” was a compliment uttered no fewer than 100 times during the Blue Jays’ post-game celebration, where even more beers were sprayed into the air.
“Those two are the big dogs, they run the pen — they run the kennel,” an animated Varland said of Gausman and Bassitt, with beers in both hands.
“Yeah, not their normal outings but those guys are dogs,” outfielder Myles Straw added of the two starters deployed from the bullpen. “They want the ball. We wanted them to have the ball because we know how much they want the ball.
“And I’ve seen Bassitt pacing the last several days in the clubhouse, just ready to go. Super happy for those guys. I love seeing these guys succeed, man. I love these guys so much. What a night.”
It ended when closer Jeff Hoffman came in and punched out three straight batters. Later, a shirtless Hoffman was quite cold as his shorts were being stuffed with chunks of ice by Varland, though Hoffman still managed to appreciate the efforts of the relievers who came in before him, during the seventh and eighth.
“It’s really hard to do what they did — it’s totally out of their comfort zone,” Hoffman said of Gausman and Bassitt. “But these guys are grinders. Whatever their task is, they’re down for it, they’re ready to go.”
After the eighth inning, Bassitt told Gausman: “If you’d have told me in February that we were going seven – eight, I’d think a lot of shit went wrong.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Gausman replied, laughing.
“It’s playoffs — it’s whatever they need,” Bassitt said. “I’m just grateful for this team.”
This team is off to the World Series for the first time since 1993 after starting this ALCS down two games to none. They got it done in the most dramatic fashion possible, with the first Game 7 win in franchise history, right here at home.
“We love this team, we love this clubhouse, we love this country,” Bassitt said, smiling, beer in hand. “It’s all love.”
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