Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for June 30

This was a solid week for the Toronto Blue Jays and one that reasserts that they are indeed playoff contenders in 2025. Coming off a series loss to the Chicago White Sox at home last weekend, the Blue Jays needed to play much better on the road this week and they passed that test. Although it did get ugly a few times, the fact they won back-to-back series on the road is certainly a step in the right direction and it’s the second time they have won back-to-back road series this month.

As the weather continues to get warmer the Blue Jays continue to heat up as they sit at 45-38, with a two-game lead in the Wild Card race and just three games back of the Yankees, who are heading to Rogers Centre for a four-game series starting Monday. Here’s a deeper dive into what went right and what went wrong for the Blue Jays over the last seven days.

Blue Jays week in review

The good: 4-2 against playoff competition

As good as the Blue Jays have been this month (15-10 in June) the teams around them in the playoff race have also stayed in the chase. Two of those teams have been the Cleveland Guardians and the Boston Red Sox and a couple of series wins would have allowed Toronto to start to create a little bit of separation in the standings.

The Blue Jays went 2-1 against both teams, winning the opener and the finale while dropping the middle game. It allowed them to inch further away from both of those teams and while nothing can feel comfortable in July, all of the teams outside the Wild Card playoff positions are clubs who are under .500.

Three of the four wins this week were fairly convincing as well, with Toronto outscoring their competition 25-6 while throwing two shutouts. The Blue Jays got timely hitting from players up and down the lineup in the four wins and the back-to-back shutouts thrown by Kevin Gausman and Jose Berrios (with some help from the bullpen) shows just how dominant the Blue Jays pitching can be when they are at their best.   

The bad: Pitching inconsistency

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays pitching was not at it’s best for the entire week. The bullpen looked shaky at times and Chris Bassitts start against the Red Sox on Saturday was one of his worst as a Blue Jay. He allowed nine runs, (eight earned) in just two innings of work and the bullpen didn’t do much to help stem the tide with Paxton Shultz, and Mason Fluharty giving up a combined five runs.

In Tuesday’s series opener against Cleveland, it was Fluharty and Chad Green who worked through a shaky seventh inning that saw the Guardians score three runs to cut Toronto’s lead to 6-4 heading into the eighth inning. Thankfully, George Springer’s grand slam in the eighth put the game out of reach for the Blue Jays.

On Wednesday, the Blue Jays put up three runs in the top of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead over the Guardians, only for Nick Sandlin to come out of the bullpen and immediately give up a lead off home run to Lane Thomas to tie the game.

The pitchers aren’t going to be perfect every time, nor should we expect them to be, but the wild fluctuations in how they pitched as a unit this week is something to keep an eye on over the next seven days.

The noteworthy: Guerrero getting going

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stayed hot this week continuing what’s been an impressive month of June. He’s hit .281/.379/.506 this month with 10 walks and 10 strikeouts. While he’s only hit four home runs in the month, two of them came this past week and they were both in big spots.

His 11th of the season was in Wednesday’s contest against Cleveland, and it tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth. His second came in the finale against Boston on Sunday and it followed Addison Barger’s ninth home run of the season. It was a mammoth shot over the monster to give the Blue Jays an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. A great way to set the tone after the Blue Jays were demolished by Boston on Saturday.

Guerrero overall had five hits and two walks in the six games and that includes one game where he was hit by a pitch in his second at-bat and was removed from the rest of the contest.

On deck: Biggest home stand of the season?

The Blue Jays welcome the Yankees and the Angels to Rogers Centre this week and it begins a stretch of games where the Blue Jays could really rack up some wins ahead of the All-Star break. As mentioned, the Blue Jays are just three games behind the Yankees for first place in the AL East, so each of those four head-to-head games could have huge implications on not only the playoff race, but how each team approaches the trade deadline. Following the Yankees series the Blue Jays play nine straight games against teams with below .500 records, including the Angels for three at home.