Here we are again, feeling good after avoiding a sweep.

The Blue Jays pulled off a massive comeback on Sunday to save themselves from a sweep by the New York Yankees and they carried that momentum into back-to-back infuriating losses on Monday and Tuesday night in Chicago.

Tuesday night’s 13-inning game forced Charlie Montoyo to go deep into the team’s bullpen, but Ross Stripling stepped up on Wednesday afternoon and delivered a much-needed six innings with only one run earned. The bats also did their part as a homer from Alejandro Kirk, a grand slam from Bo Bichette, and a two-run bomb from Teoscar Hernandez resulted in nine runs scored.

That was important because Adam Cimber made things a little stressful in the bottom of the eighth inning. The final score was 9-5.

Guillermo Martinez needs to get tossed before every game!

While losing two out of three isn’t ideal and the pitching made this a frustrating series, it’s certainly encouraging to see the bats do what they did against a team that can pitch well. They scored 22 runs across the three games against Chicago, and 32 over four games if you include the comeback against New York.

Next up, the Blue Jays will be off on Thursday and then they’ll play three in Milwaukee before they return home for a crucial stretch of games against American League East opponents.

The Boston Red Sox are on fire lately and are now only a half game back of the Blue Jays in the standings while the Tampa Bay Rays sit one game behind Toronto. It’ll be Boston coming to town for three and then Tampa playing a rare five-game series that features a Saturday doubleheader to help make up for the games that were moved because of the lockout.

Just like last year, life in the AL East is going to be a grind down the stretch. Doing well against the division is critical.