The Lead

Blue Jays Rally Late, Bullpen Closes It Out

The Blue Jays trailed before a four-run seventh inning turned a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 win over the Reds on Friday. Nathan Lukes delivered the go-ahead single in that inning, Kazuma Okamoto drove in three runs, and Louis Varland worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 35th save in 37 chances.

The save conversion rate is the number that matters here. A closer converting 35 of 37 chances turns close games into a formality, and that reliability is exactly what shifts a team's tolerance for late-inning volatility elsewhere in the roster.

The rally itself says something about depth further down the lineup. Okamoto and Lukes are not the names that typically decide these games, and a bullpen that can protect a one-run margin without stress buys the front office room to be patient with everyone else.

The Rest of the Slate

Presidents Cup

The Internationals took a 7-3 lead into the weekend at Medinah after another foursomes sweep on Friday, their largest two-session lead since the only year they won the event, 1998. Canadians Nick Taylor and Corey Conners pushed world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns to the 18th hole before the match was decided, a sign the gap is being built by execution under pressure, not just scoreboard math.

Argonauts

Lirim Hajrullahu's 36-yard field goal with 27 seconds left lifted Toronto to a 30-28 win over Winnipeg on Friday, extending the win streak to four games. Janarion Grant's 128-yard return of a missed field goal attempt was the play that kept the Argonauts in position to need only a late kick.

Formula 1

George Russell claimed pole for Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen unable to back up his practice pace and qualifying eighth. Teammate Isack Hadjar out-qualified Verstappen by six tenths, a gap worth watching once the race settles into long-run pace at Baku.

The Number

128

Yards on Janarion Grant's missed field-goal return touchdown A single special-teams play covered nearly a full field's worth of chaos and turned a possession Winnipeg thought was safe into six points for Toronto. Special teams have carried a disproportionate share of the Argonauts' win streak, and how often that continues will decide whether this four-game run is a hot streak or the identity of the team heading into the playoff stretch.

What's On Today

            3:07 PM ET · Blue Jays vs. Reds
7:00 AM ET · Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Presidents Cup, four-ball session: Conners/Taylor vs. Gotterup/Young
8:30 PM ET · Toronto FC at Nashville SC
          

Top Dog — Betting Angle

The pick: Blue Jays moneyline. A bullpen anchored by a closer converting saves at a near-95 percent clip all season turns one-run Toronto leads into the safest bet on the board.

The Angle

Vladdy's Contract Comments Weren't the Real Problem

The easy verdict on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this week wrote itself. A franchise player signs a 500 million dollar extension, has a down year, and tells a Spanish-language interviewer the contract was payment for what he already did, not for future performance. Asked after Toronto's elimination on Wednesday whether he regretted the comment, he stood by it. "No, I don't regret myself. I'm not lying with what I say," Guerrero said through an interpreter. Two days later, before Friday's series opener against Cincinnati, he reversed course. "I regret my comments the other day," he said, again through an interpreter, adding that his fans deserved an apology. The apology will close the news cycle. It should not close the review.

Critics called the original remark exactly the wrong message from a player who entered the final series hitting .263 with nine home runs, while the team he is supposed to anchor finishes below .500 a year after Game 7. The backlash was understandable given the contrast: a star turn through the 2025 run to Game 7 of the World Series, then a season of ordinary production. But the quote was never the problem, and the apology is not the fix. Toronto led the majors with a .333 on-base percentage in 2025. Entering the final series, its .310 mark was tied for 26th, and its 150 home runs were the fewest in baseball. A slugger saying sorry does not raise a team's on-base percentage. Alongside a long injury list, Toronto's problem was a lineup-wide collapse in production, and that is the question the front office has to answer this winter.