TORONTO — Are you not entertained?
Back when the Blue Jays were stuck hovering around .500 earlier this season, manager John Schneider liked to joke that they were in the entertainment business, forever stuck in one-run games and constantly making those more interesting than they needed to be. Well, business is booming.
“We’re going to enjoy this,” said Schneider. “That’s cool, to win out a homestand, throw in Canada Day and a different guy every night? That was pretty cool. I said it yesterday, but it’s pretty easy to have a letdown after a four-game sweep. Three one-run games, we did it in different ways with different people. It was awesome. We’ll enjoy it, for sure, because it’s hard to do.”
It’s the first time in more than three years the Blue Jays have won eight in a row, going back to May 24 to June 2, 2022, and the first time in this organization’s history that they’ve swept a homestand of at least seven games.
Each day has brought a new surprise with it. Saturday, it was right-hander Lazaro Estrada making his MLB debut with four innings of one-run relief, holding the game in place long enough for the Blue Jays to finally walk it off. Sunday, it was Joey Loperfido, finally back from Buffalo for his 2025 MLB debut. Loperfido has taken the long road, but he immediately rewarded Schneider for writing his name on the lineup card with an RBI single in the fourth inning.
“I think it speaks volumes to the tone and the culture we have here,” Schneider said. “Last year, we had a revolving door in here and it was like, ‘Who are we? What are we going to do?’ [Loperfido has] come up, Estrada, [Paxton] Schultz, [Ryan] Burr comes in. More than anything, it speaks volumes to what we have in the clubhouse.”
Loperfido echoed his manager. He was here down the stretch in 2024, after the Blue Jays held their fire sale at the Trade Deadline, so he has seen both sides of this.
“There’s a looseness and a positivity,” Loperfido. “It’s not guys [screwing] around or not being locked in; it’s a fun that comes with a little bit of swagger and a lot of confidence. You can sense that taking one step into that locker room.”
While they’ve ridden this wave, the Blue Jays have shown an incredible ability to correct themselves on the fly. Down early and tied late, the Blue Jays counterpunched both times. Bo Bichette’s home run came in the bottom half of the same inning that his fielding error extended, too. These are things that simply didn’t happen a year ago, but then again nothing about this team feels like it did a year ago.
Kevin Gausman bounced back for his own piece of the winning streak, too. Last time out, Gausman held the Yankees to two runs over five innings, but he allowed more walks (four) than strikeouts (three) and had the benefit of his offense putting up 12 runs. This time out, Gausman looked at himself again, racking up nine strikeouts and a pile of whiffs over 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. This is who Gausman is at his best, a high-strikeout pitcher who leaves little to the luck and chance of balls put in play.
“I went with the game plan of being in attack mode. We were going for a sweep today,” Gausman said. “I kind of wanted to set the tone early, and I think it’s the first game in a while that I did.”
Toronto isn’t shying away from this run, the spotlight of the AL East or all of the attention that comes along with it. It’s easy to play coy and downplay it all, but the Blue Jays are embracing what they’ve done. They’re sitting atop the AL East for the first time in nearly a decade, and they’re suddenly some of baseball’s best entertainers.