{"id":878908,"date":"2026-09-03T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878908\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:26:10","slug":"blue-jays-secure-pivotal-win-to-move-0-5-games-back-of-wild-card-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878908\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays secure pivotal win to move 0.5 games back of wild-card spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2013 Five wins in their last six games. A series win over the team they\u2019re chasing in the standings. Big swings from their franchise player.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Blue Jays are right back in it now, one game under .500 and only 0.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians in the American League wild-card race after winning 6-3 Thursday to take two of three in a high-stakes series at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n

The win also gives the 70-71 Blue Jays a tiebreaker advantage over Cleveland should the two teams end up with identical records after 162 games.<\/p>\n

Without a pair of big swings from Nathan Lukes<\/a> and some shutdown relief work, this win wouldn\u2019t have been possible. Lukes drove in two runs with a pair of doubles while the bullpen combined for 4.1 scoreless innings on a hot and humid day in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

All things considered, it\u2019s been quite a month for the Blue Jays. At the Aug. 3 trade deadline, they moved veterans like Kevin Gausman, Daulton Varsho and Jeff Hoffman, acknowledging that 2026 likely wasn\u2019t their year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Exactly one month later, the Blue Jays are as well positioned as they\u2019ve been all season. There\u2019s still work to do, of course, so pressure will follow them to Kansas City and Sacramento while their road trip continues. But there are reasons for optimism as they head west.<\/p>\n

First and most importantly, they\u2019re winning again. They\u2019ve followed up a 17-11 August with a 2-1 start to September. From here, they\u2019ll have chances to build more momentum with series against two of the American League\u2019s three worst teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond the wins, some key Blue Jays are playing better, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a> front and centre in that respect. After a three-hit, five-RBI game Wednesday, he had a walk and a sacrifice fly in Thursday\u2019s win. The swings are looking better lately, with loud contact that could transform this lineup if it lasts.<\/p>\n

Some reinforcements are coming, too. First, it\u2019ll be Jameson Taillon starting Friday against the Royals, but Trey Yesavage is set to pitch off a mound soon, keeping him in play for the end of the season. That pitching depth can help the Blue Jays withstand games like this, where starter Jose Soriano allowed three runs while covering just 4.2 innings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even possible some offensive help could be coming with Anthony Santander progressing closer to a triple-A rehab stint as soon as next week \u2013 though it wouldn\u2019t be prudent to assume anything of him just yet.<\/p>\n

Of course there will be challenges, too. Guerrero Jr. must find ways to sustain this \u2013 something he\u2019s struggled to do five months into the 2026 season. And even if he\u2019s hitting again, this offence ranks bottom three in MLB in runs, home runs and on-base percentage.<\/p>\n

Plus, with Taillon and Spencer Arrighetti covering two of their five rotation spots, there\u2019s still significant uncertainty in the Toronto rotation as both pitchers spent time on the injured list last month.<\/p>\n

And as well as they\u2019ve played, the Blue Jays are still below .500 and out of the playoffs, all of which means there\u2019s still work to be done, still only so many losses to play with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in a weak American League, the Blue Jays are a team to be reckoned with again. All that stands between them and October baseball is a few more weeks like this \u2013 if only they can keep it rolling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2013 Five wins in their last six games. A series win over the team they\u2019re chasing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-878908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}