Blue Jays Week in Review: The good, the bad, the noteworthy for May 26

The highs and lows continue to come in waves for the Toronto Blue Jays this season. After starting last week by sweeping a good San Diego Padres team, they were then swept by a not-so-great Tampa Bay Rays team. In the end, it was another week where the Blue Jays played .500 ball.

They got one game over the .500 mark on Thursday (something they hadn't done since they were 12-11 on April 21), but it didn’t last long. They're currently two games below .500 after being swept the Rays. They are also 11-11 in the month of May, which shows how average they've been.

Still, there were some important highlights the week, like the Blue Jays improving to 16-12 at home after that three-game sweep over the Padres. Here is the week in review.

The Good: Sweeping the Padres

The Blue Jays began the week by winning three games against one of the best teams in the National League, aand each victory showcased a different strength for the Blue Jays.

Tuesday's 3-1 victory was a nailbiter with standout pitching and just enough offense, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander hit home runs. Chris Bassitt pitched six strong innings of four-hit ball and the bullpen shut the door.

The Blue Jays dominated on Wednesday in a 14-0 blowout win that surpassed their previous season high of nine runs. Just about everybody contributed on the offensive side, with six of the starting nine driving in at least a run. Kevin Gausman pitched seven innings and gave up just three hits with nine strikeouts.

Thursday’s finale was a back and forth. Toronto led 4-2 in the ninth, but the Padres tied the game off Jeff Hoffman. Each team scored a run in the tenth, and the Padres again took the lead in the eleventh. In the bottom half of that inning, Daulton Varsho led off with a triple to score the ghost runner ahead of Nathan Lukes hitting a walk-off single.

The win looked like a huge a turning point in the season for Toronto, as it got them back to .500 and gave them some good vibes ahead of their trip down south.

The Bad: The curse of the Trop continues

The Blue Jays have never played never played well in Tampa Bay in their history as evidenced by their career record of of 92-124 inside the confines of Tropicana Field. But this year's a bit different since the Rays are playing their 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field afterHurricane Milton destroyed the Trop's roof in the offseason.

That change led to some hope that the Blue Jays would be able to break out of their Tampa Bay funk since they'd be playing in an open-air spring training stadium.

That just ended up being wishful thinking, as Toronto scored a grand total of two runs in their three game against the Rays in a three game sweep.

While the Blue Jays' pitching kept them in the game on Friday and Saturday, they got blown out 13-0 on Sunday.

Toronto out-hit the Rays in the second game of the series but went 2-for-14 with RISP through the first two games of the series before not having a single at-bat with a runner in scoring position on Sunday.

The lack of offense once again let down the Blue Jays' starters. Eric Lauer had a decent start on Friday (he allowed three runs in 4 1/3 inning) ahead of the bullpen giving up just two hits.

José Berríos was just as effective on Saturday when he surrendered three earned runs in six innings of work.

That failure to win the first two games of the series made the sweep feel almost inevitable.

The Noteworthy: More runs needed early

While it's a good sign that the Blue Jays have 13 come-from-behind wins so far this year, it would be nice if they could take some early leads since that would take some pressure off the starting rotation and bullpen.

Guerrero's early game home run against Dylan Cease on Tuesday marked the first time the Blue Jays opened the scoring in a game since their game against the Mariners on May 9. The Blue Jays scored first in just one game the rest of the week.

The Blue Jays are a team that needs a bit of time to get its engine going, as they've only scored 127 runs between the first and sixth inning this year, which is the fifth-lowest total in all of MLB.

In contrast, the 78 runs they've scored from the seventh inning on is 16th in MLB.

The Blue Jays have been outscored 35-16, which just adds to the amount of urgancy they need to show.

On Deck: A full week against the West

The Blue Jays will head from Tampa to Texas to for a three-game series against the Rangers that starts at 4 p.m. on Monday.

Kevin Gausman (4-4 4.03 ERA) will get the ball for the Blue Jays on Monday, while the Rangers will counter with Jacob deGrom (4-1 2.33 ERA). The Rangers (26-28) are fourth in the AL West and snapped a six-game losing streak win a win over Chicago on Sunday.

After the three-games in Texas, Toronto comes home to host a four-game series against the Athletics.