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MLB TORONTO — Kevin Gausman paused for an extra moment, embracing catcher Tyler Heineman longer after recording his final out. The Toronto Blue Jays starter then turned and fired his last piece of gum to the side. It’s a ritual for Gausman, tossing the chewed gum after every inning he records. In Thursday’s 6-0 win over the Houston Astros, Gausman peppered the turf with nine pieces — one for every shutout inning he threw. Advertisement It was Gausman’s best start of the season, Toronto’s first complete-game shutout of the year, and the 11th in the big leagues overall. It earned the Jays a series win to maintain a three-game lead in the division with just 16 contests to play. Here are four other takeaways and notes from the Jays’ three-game set against the Astros: In his final season at the University of Virginia, Ernie Clement charged in on a groundball. As he reached down with his throwing hand, the ball clipped his right index finger and created a small hairline fracture at the tip. That could’ve been it. In five weeks, Clement’s college career would end. He’d already won a College World Series title and was preparing for a draft in which he’d eventually go in the fourth round to Cleveland. He could’ve sat out the final weeks. “They kind of left it up to me, ” Clement said. “But I was always going to play through it. ” After one day off, Clement returned to the Cavaliers’ lineup. Throws across the diamond were tough, and he gripped the bat with just nine fingers, the right index pointing up. But he finished the season hitting . 316 in the final 14 games. “You can let it affect you, ” Clement said. “Or you can just put it aside and suck it up. Go do your job. ” Eight years later, Clement is a key everyday utilityman for the Jays. He’s on pace for his second straight season worth over 3. 3 WAR, per Baseball Reference, with time at all four infield positions. With Bo Bichette on the injured list, Clement became a regular shortstop in the midst of a pennant race, starting all three games against the Astros at the position. Once again, he’s playing through a broken bone in his hand. Joe Ryan’s sinker broke in on Clement in a late August game, catching the right-handed hitter on top of his left hand. The infielder grimaced as he bounced away from the plate and jogged to first. Imaging the next day revealed a small broken bone in the middle of his hand. Advertisement It’s worse than his broken finger from 2017, Clement said, but a similar situation. Neither could get worse due to playing through, and both take around four to six weeks to fully heal. It hurts to grip the bat, but it’s purely pain management. When the scan first revealed this break, Clement was adamant he wasn’t going on the injured list. “They said, ‘Just be honest with us and let us know how you’re feeling, ’” Clement said. “Maybe I wasn’t the most honest, but I just told them I can play. ” Since the hand injury, Clement hit . 367 with a . 906 OPS entering Thursday. Losing Bichette, one of the league’s hottest second-half hitters, creates a significant hole in the middle of Toronto’s lineup. But Clement has found a similar contact niche in recent weeks and grades out as a plus defender at shortstop, per Statcast. With his injured hand not holding him back, Clement is filling the void, for now. Louis Varland stepped forward off the bullpen mound, pausing for a second as he braced for impact. Blue Jays bullpen coach Graham Johnson moved behind him, pulling back his arms and releasing a double slap to the back of Varland’s jersey. It’s called a “velo slap” — a hype-up practice many pitchers use when preparing to throw high velocities in practice sessions. This year, starting with the Minnesota Twins, Varland adopted it before his relief appearances. “It’s like a strategy to wake you up, ” Varland said. The hard-throwing right-hander then jogged down the bullpen steps and out to the mound. He twirled 1 1/3 shutout innings of work — one of the eight scoreless appearances from Toronto’s bullpen against the Astros. It certainly helped that Gausman took the bullpen off the table with Thursday’s complete game, but the Jays’ relief group appears much improved over the last two series. Advertisement The Jays’ bullpen owns a 1. 15 ERA in the last six contests, the second-lowest mark in the big leagues. Brendon Little, Yariel Rodríguez and a refreshed Braydon Fisher had all thrown four straight scoreless outings. The exception is Jeff Hoffman, the team’s clear closer. After a scoreless 10-pitch outing in Tuesday’s comeback win, Hoffman allowed a game-breaking solo homer in Wednesday’s ninth-inning loss. That’s the exact trend Hoffman’s battled all season. He’s rattled off lengthy stretches of dominance. The strikeouts are high and the walks largely contained. Then he runs into a crushing homer. Schneider’s diagnosis of Hoffman’s homer issue is twofold. In part, it’s teams preparing more aggressively for a closer, the manager said. It’s also pitch deployment — the sometimes ineffective sequencing of Hoffman’s three offerings. The Jays focused on Hoffman’s pitch usage all season, attempting to correct the course. It’s not the first time pitch deployment has been mentioned as a potential fix, but the homers keep coming. If Hoffman enters one of his strong stretches at the end of the season and carries it through October, the Jays seem to have the ingredients of formidability. But the fear of one bad pitch in the ninth — and one big homer — will undoubtedly remain. Those lone mistakes are magnified in the playoffs. Avoiding that bad pitch could be the difference between moving on and planning vacation. For the first time in 105 days, Anthony Santander played a baseball game. The 30-year-old made his rehab assignment debut for the Buffalo Bisons on Thursday, homering and walking twice as designated hitter. SANTANDER. 396FT pic. twitter. com/ORb Lpg01CT — Buffalo Bisons (@Buffalo Bisons) September 11, 2025 He battled through hip, shoulder and back injuries that all contributed to missing Toronto’s last three months. Now, finally, he’s back on the field. The Bisons have nine games left on the schedule. The Jays have 16 contests remaining. Santander could get his timing down and earn a spot back on Toronto’s big-league roster, but the runway is pretty short. Advertisement “We’re kind of running out of time, so we’ll see how he feels, ” Schneider told reporters in Toronto. This is essentially a rapid season restart for Santander. If he can ramp up and prove his power bat deserves a spot on the big-league roster, the Jays will find room for their $92. 5 million offseason splash. However, he’s long been a slow starter. In his first 20 games this year, before injuries sidetracked his season, Santander hit just . 221 with a . 649 OPS and two homers. The Jays don’t have time to work through a slow start in the midst of a pennant chase, so Santander’s output in his rehab assignment will be key. A deep drive Thursday is a good start. With Alek Manoah’s rehab stint and multiple Tommy John rehab extensions complete, the Jays faced a decision. After the finale against the Astros, Toronto optioned Manoah to Triple-A Buffalo to continue his return progression. With Eric Lauer manning long relief out of the bullpen and five stable starters in the rotation, there was no room for Manoah in the big leagues. “Alek understands it’s been 14 months or so of hard work, ” Schneider said. “And it may take a little bit of time. So if it’s this year, if it’s next year, we just want him to be himself. ” To make room for Manoah back on the 40-man roster, the Jays designated former top hitting prospect Orelvis Martínez for assignment. Ahead of the 2023 season, Martínez ranked as Keith Law’s second-best prospect in Toronto’s system. After missing time because of a performance-enhancing drugs suspension in 2024 and a rough offensive campaign this year, he’s now off the expanded roster. Martínez always held significant swing-and-miss, but it only worsened as he climbed the minors. In 99 games this year, the infielder hit just . 176 and struck out 112 times. His power potential remains high, but the whiffs overshadow it all. (Photo: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Mitch Bannon is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Toronto Blue Jays. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Blue Jays for SI. com and wrote for MLB. com in a freelance capacity. He is a graduate of Mc Gill University and the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Follow Mitch on Twitter @Mitch Bannon