The month of May has been all about the sweep.

The Blue Jays got swept in Boston, they swept the Pirates in Pittsburgh, they got swept in Philadelphia, and then they returned home and swept the Braves.

Sunday’s series finale was a weird one, with two poor starting pitching performances and both teams making some ugly errors in the outfield. Atlanta looked like they were cruising to a win that would have salvaged the series but Danny Jansen hit a bases-loaded, walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to pull off the win for the Blue Jays.

Yusei Kikuchi didn’t have his best stuff during this start. He allowed five runs, four earned, on nine hits and zero walks with seven strikeouts and was pulled after allowing a leadoff single in the fifth inning. It’s the second time in three starts that Kikuchi hasn’t been able to clear five innings.

The trouble for Kikuchi was keeping the ball in the yard. He allowed three homers, including one to former Blue Jay Kevin Pillar.

It was a good thing that John Schneider had a quick hook with Kikuchi because the bullpen was excellent the rest of the way. Anthony Bass, Jay Jackson, Trevor Richards, and Nate Pearson combined to toss five scoreless innings and they only allowed one hit and four walks.

Pearson got through the top of the ninth inning and wound up earning the win after Jansen’s walk-off. It was his first win in the Major Leagues since all the way back in September of 2021 when the Blue Jays rallied with four runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles.

It was huge for the Blue Jays to get those performances from the backend of their bullpen, because Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, and Yimi Garcia will be well rested for when the team kicks off their next series with the New York Yankees on Monday.