Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for September 29

The Toronto Blue Jays came through with the division title on the line. Entering the final week of the season, they had to play two division rivals in the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays while a third division rival, the New York Yankees, were hot on their heels in the standings.

The Blue Jays went 4-2 in their six game home stand, with four straight victories to end the year. Toronto ended up needing all four of them as they began the week up by one game on the Yankees, but by Wenesday they were tied. Thanks to Toronto holding the tiebreaker over New York, the Yankees had to play one game better than Toronto the rest of the way.

The Blue Jays didn't let it happen, winning the finale of the series against the Red Sox 6-1, then sweeping the Rays in three straight, pushing their record to 94-68 - their best record since 1993, and their best finish since that year as well when they also had the best record in the American League. Let's take a look at what went well, what didn't and what was noteworthy over the last seven days.

Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for September 29

The good: Coming through when the pressure was at it's peak

All season long the Blue Jays have been known as the "come back kids," and just when he seemed like their chances of winning the AL East were as good as gone, they came back one more time and matched the Yankees blow for blow over the seasons final four games. While the Yankees took down the White Sox and the Orioles the Blue Jays got tremendous pitching and timely hitting to dispose of the Red Sox and the Rays.

In the final four games, the Blue Jays outscored their opponents 28-8, including three games where the opponents didn't score more than two runs. From the bullpen game in which Louis Varland started and six other pitchers combined to allow just four hits to Trey Yesavage not allowing a run over five innings with five strikeouts in a must win situation for the Blue Jays, this team's pitching staff was as tight as it's been all season.

Meanwhile, the offense also came up clutch bookended by two grand slams with Daulton Varsho's sixth inning big fly against the Red Sox on Thursday and Alejandro Kirk's first career grand slam on Sunday against the Rays in the bottom of the first.

The bad: still waiting for Guerrero to break out of his slump

Since September 16, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is just 9-52, a .173 average. While his strikeout rate has remained the same over that time frame (13%) his walk rate has gone down to just 2% after averaging 12% over the season, and in the last 13 games his average exit velocity is down to 84.7 mph from 91.9 mph.

Vladdy has simply not been himself at the plate over the last few weeks and this isn't a case of getting unlucky bounces or hitting it hard right at the fielders. Guerrero has just a .233 xBA, so while his actual average is a few points lower, it's not by much as he has only put eight balls in play at 100 mph or harder and has just a double and single to show for it. The Blue Jays will need Vladdy to have better outcomes than this once the ALDS begins.

The noteworthy: Fluharty comes up clutch again

Over the course of 162 games, it's hard to lock down a specific pivotal moment in which the season could have gone one way or the other, but for rookie reliever Mason Fluharty there are likely two such instances that stand out for him. The second of those came in Sundays season finale against the Rays.

In the top of the fourth, the Blue Jays were clinging to a 5-4 lead. The Rays had the bases loaded with two outs and lefty Jonathan Aranda stepped up to the plate. Manager John Schneider chose Fluharty to come in and halt the Rays in their tracks and keep the one-run lead intact. On a 2-2 pitche Fluharty got Aranda swinging on a sweeper to end the threat and close out the inning.

The 24-year-old southpaw has practically been lights out since that other pivotal moment. It was August 10 in Los Angeles and Fluharty was asked to get out of another bases loaded jam. The Blue Jays had a 5-4 lead on the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth and Fluharty came into the game and struck out Shohei Ohtani, then got Mookie Betts to ground out to earn his first career save.

Who knows where the Blue Jays would be if Fluharty had not locked that game down in LA in August, but the fact that they won the division with a tied record shows how large that win loomed over the course of the rest of the season.

On Deck: awaiting an opponent

Now the Blue Jays get to rest up and refresh as they away thier opponent in the ALDS. They do know it will be a division rival as they will have home field advantage against the winner of the Wild Card series that features the Red Sox and the Yankees. Game One of the ALDS is scheduled for Saturday in Toronto.