Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for September 15

Three games against the Houston Astros followed by three games against the Baltimore Orioles could have spelled disaster for the Toronto Blue Jays. Both teams had had Toronto's number this season with the Astros up 3-0 and Baltimore up 6-4 in their respective head-to-head season series. But Toronto did what they have done all season, they battled, they overcame deficits, they pitched well and got timely hits.

It's the first time in three weeks in which Toronto played above .500 ball over the course of a week and it came at the best time as they managed to gain some ground on the teams around them in the playoff hunt. Here's what they did well, and to a much lesser extent, what they didn't do well this week.

Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for September 15

The good: late inning heroics

Two walk-off wins in one homestand doesn't happen to often, but for the Blue Jays in 2025 it almost feels like that has become their identity. On Tuesday evening, in the opener against the Astros, the Blue Jays tied the game on a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth from Isiah Kiner-Falefa. They won the game the following inning on an infield single from Tyler Heineman for a 4-3 win.

The Blue Jays also won the finale of that series against Houston before taking the opener against the Orioles on Friday night. On Saturday, it once again came down to Blue Jays getting clutch at-bats in the bottom of the ninth. Down 4-2, the Blue Jays put together a sequence that included four straight singles, a catchers interference call and with the bases loaded and one out, Alejandro Kirk came up with the walk-off sacrifice fly.

The Blue Jays would go on to sweep the Orioles in a laugher in the finale on Sunday winning 11-2 and push their overall record to 87-62 by the end of the weekend. It also gives them a home record of 50-25, the second best home record in all of baseball through Sunday.

The bad: another home run allowed by Hoffman

This was really the only blemish on the weekend. In a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning on Wednesday against the Astros, Jeff Hoffman entered the game trying to keep the score deadlocked. But with one out and nobody one, Yainer Diaz smoked a ball to left field that went 385 feet and gave the Astros a 3-2 lead, which they would hang on to for the victory.

It was the 15th home run Hoffman had allowed this season, extending his unceremonious franchise record for home runs given up by a Blue Jays closer. But it was also the third time in four nights Hoffman was on the mound for the Blue Jays and he didn't make an appearance for the rest of the week. We'll see if the rest helps him in his next outing.

The noteworthy: Gausman goes the distance

Nine innings. Nin strikeouts. Two hits. No earned runs.100 pitches. A dominant outing if there ever was one by Blue Jays veteran Kevin Gausman who has been one of the hottest pitchers in the game the last two months. Since June 26 he ranks second in innings pitched (91.2), seventh in ERA (2.36) tied for ninth in strikeouts (87) and tied for sixth in fWAR (2.2). He capped off his tremendous stretch by completely carving up the Astros in the series finale on Thursday afternoon.

By Game Score that was Gausmans best performance of his entire career, earning him a 91 on that metric, surpassing his Game Score of 89 which he set on August 2, 2022 when he went eight innings, giving up one hit and striking out 10 in a 3-1 win over the Rays in Tampa Bay. Thursday's outing was the fourth career complete game for Gausman, his second career shutout and he became the first Blue Jays pitcher to throw a complete game since...well, himself, back on June 8, 2024 when he shut out the Athletics in a 7-0 Blue Jays win.

On deck: Rays and Royals look to spoil the party

Playing the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida at the spring training home of the Yankees while New York is chasing down Toronto can't be a good omen for the Blue Jays. While the first four games of this week are against a team that is three games below .500 - the Rays are 1-5 against Toronto this season, including a three game sweep earlier this year at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Toronto has notoriously never played well in Tampa at the Trop at that drought carried over to their temporary home once already in 2025. The Blue Jays have a chance to at least clinch a post-season berth depending on the outcome of their games this week and the Rays will be looking to prolong that celebration for as long as they can.

After the four games against the Rays, it's the Royals up next who are much closer to their elimination number than a post-season berth. The Blue Jays went 1-2 at home against KC earlier this season.