Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad and the noteworthy for September 22

The Toronto Blue Jays have finally clinched a berth in the 2025 playoffs, something that they basically tried to do all week. Overall they went 3-4, marking their first sub .500 week since July 28-August 2, when they went 2-5 against Baltimore and, ironically, Kansas City - a team they played again this week with a similar result.

The job isn't over, the Blue Jays still need to lock down the AL East and hopefully secure a first-round bye, but they can take pride in being the first team in the American League to get to 90 wins and have that hard earned "x" next to their name in the standings. Let's review how they got their with what they did well, and what they didn't, over the last seven days.

Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad and the noteworthy for September 22

The good: They are in the playoffs, phew!

It took a while, it was agonizing, frustrating and full of nail biting - but the Blue Jays will be playing October baseball after 162 games. They guaranteed themselves that with a win on Sunday over the Royals, a team they were just 1-4 against in 2025 going into that series finale.

The Blue Jays had chances to clinch a playoff spot on both Friday and Saturday, but on both of those days they also required some help from other teams losing. The Blue Jays couldn't get the job done on either of those days, but when it came down to it on Sunday they just needed to win to get in.

They played a typical 2025 Blue Jays style game with plenty of hits, grinding out at-bats, making big outs on the mound and in the field and they fended off the Royals in an 8-5 victory to avoid the sweep, and seal the deal on their postseason aspirations.

The bad: the offense dissapeared for most of the week

The Blue Jays scored 13 runs over 63 innings of baseball this week. In only two of the seven games did the Blue Jays score more than two runs, that was on Tuesday winning 6-5 over Tampa Bay and on Sunday against the Royals. In their other win, they scraped across two runs in a 2-1 win over the Rays on Monday.

In the four games they lost, the Blue Jays were outscored 28-3. While that includes that blowout 20-1 loss to the Royals and if we take away that game, the run differential drops to 8-2. Certainly all these games were in reach with just a few timely hits, but the Blue Jays just couldn't find them between Wednesday and Saturday. Hopefully that is just a blip and the Blue Jays can make the eight run performances on Sunday more of the norm as they head into the postseason.

The noteworthy: A debut that was worth the wait

Trey Yesavage was drafted just over a year ago in the first-round by the Blue Jays and he now has two MLB starts under his belt after a whirlwhind of a debut year in professional baseball. He started all the way down in low-A and is now starting games for the Blue Jays during their chase for the postseason.

The 22-year-old set a new Blue Jays record for a starting pitcher with nine strikeouts in Toronto's 2-1 win over Tampa Bay on Monday. He went 5+ innings, allowed just one run, and more like a 32-year-old veteran than a 22-year-old rookie.

Yesavage was also having a great second game until an absurd replay review knocked him out of the game on Sunday in Kansas City and his finishing line doesn't look great; with four earned runs on five hits, and just two strikeouts, while walking three batters in four innings pitched. But Yesavage battled a tough strikezone and some pesky hitters to keep the Blue Jays in the game during his outing.

On deck: divsion foes to finish the year

The Blue Jays will welcome in some familiar faces to Rogers Centre for the last week of the regular season. Up first are the Boston Red Sox who are still alive in what has become a very crowded AL Wild card chase. The Blue Jays have gone 7-3 against Boston this season, and would love to be able to lock down the AL East while playing a division rival and that series gets started on Tuesday.

If they can't get it done against the Red Sox, they'll have to overcome the Rays during the last three games of the season. The Rays are the only team in the division this year the Blue Jays won't have a winning record against.