AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: MARINERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 19, 2025

Daulton Varsho

Rogers Centre

Toronto Blue Jays

Pregame 6 Press Conference

Q. Just seeing what George went through over the past couple days, the fact that he's in the lineup today, what are your thoughts on his experience and what he means to you guys playing after getting hit in the knee like that?

DAULTON VARSHO: Yeah, it's pretty incredible to take 97 off your kneecap and have it come off 55 miles per hour. But we're all glad that he's in the lineup, feeling good. Glad it's not broke. Just one of those things where it looked really bad, and so glad he's okay.

Q. Can you describe some of the emotions you're feeling ahead of this game, knowing the importance of it?

DAULTON VARSHO: Yeah, obviously, it's an elimination game, so just play our game, do our thing. We had a lot of opportunities, I was one of them, that didn't really get the job done and just it's baseball.

Q. When you're in the back-and-forth series like this, how long do you think momentum lasts? Is it one-inning thing? A single-game thing? Can it go from the previous game to tonight?

DAULTON VARSHO: With how much this series has gone back and forth, I think it's more of just -- honestly, I think it's like a couple innings. Like, a big momentum swing can happen, but the team can come back really fast. So obviously, just keeping our heads locked in, knowing that we need to do what we need to do and just ride it out.

Q. Curious, with your dad's experience in postseason baseball himself, when you're going through this series, is he offering feedback, support, or what are some of the stories too that he might share from his own experiences at this time of year?

DAULTON VARSHO: Yeah, he was on that Pittsburgh team when they were up 3-2 coming back home and they lost the next two to the Braves. So he actually told me that. He goes, Hey, anything can happen. I've been in that position where you're up and you're feeling good about yourself, and then they come back and they beat you two games. It's just one of those things where obviously he wishes he could be able to get to the World Series, but obviously, we have the opportunity, so work on today and move on to the next day when that happens.

Q. You guys have talked all season about your ability to bounce back. What was the flight home like, and how quickly did you sort of move on from what happened in the last game?

DAULTON VARSHO: It was pretty fast. Everybody was kind of back on the plane, normal. Everybody trusting themselves. Everybody was playing cards, so everybody was kind of back to normal. And obviously we were happy to kind of get back here, kind of have a practice yesterday, kind of everybody kind of rehab, kind of do their thing, and give it their all today.

Q. You've seen a lot of different starting pitchers over your career. What's Trey like on a start day in terms of his routine and his emotions?

DAULTON VARSHO: I would say he's pretty normal. I wouldn't say he's any different. He's pretty quiet anyways, so he's kind of just locked in, doing his own thing. He kind of does the Max thing, where he puts his headphones on at some point and nobody really messes with him, but he's very calm and kind of confident in himself.