The game of baseball often finds a way to keep you humble, which is precisely what it did to the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend.

For one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last several weeks, this past series against the AL-worst Chicago White Sox was supposed to provide an opportunity for the Blue Jays to capture yet another series victory — the seventh of their last eight matchups. Instead, they ended up dropping two of three and were outscored 11-3 in those losses.

They let this winnable series slip away, particularly during Sunday’s crushing 4-2 defeat, which saw a 2-1 lead evaporate in the eighth inning amidst closer Jeff Hoffman’s fourth blown save of the season, setting a new career-high.

These things sometimes happen in this sport. Even the worst teams are liable to win 50-60 games each season — unless you’re the 2025 Colorado Rockies, that is. At the same time, though, there’s no denying this was a huge missed opportunity on Toronto’s front.

Granted, the Blue Jays — whose playoff odds currently sit at 54.6 per cent, according to FanGraphs — are still in a favourable spot despite whiffing at a chance to take two out of three versus the White Sox. They enter Monday’s slate with possession of the second AL wild-card seed at 41-36, trailing the East-leading New York Yankees by four games and the second-place Tampa Bay Rays by 1.5 games.

Prior to losing three of four, though, this team was only a half-game back of the Rays for the first wild-card seed and two games behind the Yankees for top spot in the division. Not only are they chasing those rivals in the standings, but they can also feel the Boston Red Sox — who, even after trading superstar Rafael Devers, are only two games behind — nipping at their heels.

Needless to say, Toronto can’t allow this recent disappointment to spiral into something much worse. They need to turn the page immediately so that it doesn’t push them further down the standings, especially as they head to Cleveland and Boston.

To this point, the Guardians’ season can largely be summed up as mediocre as they sit just two games above .500 at 39-37, tied with the Seattle Mariners for the final WC seed. They’ve been playing well lately, however, winning each of their last two series versus the San Francisco Giants — who took two of three against the Red Sox over the weekend — and the Athletics.

But that success has primarily been on the backs of their pitching staff, which has received minimal run support this month, given the offence has scored four runs or fewer in all but one of the club’s 19 games in June. It’s been an awful three-plus weeks for their lineup, which ranks near the bottom of the majors in several offensive categories, including home runs (15, T-26th), strikeout rate (25.3 per cent, 27th), SLG (.337, 29th), wRC+ (73, 29th), AVG (.215, 30th) and OBP (.277, 30th).

So, it appears the Blue Jays may be catching the Guardians’ lineup — only three hitters feature a league average (100) or better wRC+ since June 1: Steven Kwan (112), Nolan Jones (116) and José Ramírez (145) — at an opportunistic time. And that should create a favourable matchup for the club’s rotation, which will see Max Scherzer make his return Wednesday at Progressive Field.

All eyes will be on Scherzer as he makes his first big-league start in nearly three months, his second with the Blue Jays since departing after three innings in his debut on Mar. 29. With his right thumb injury under control (at least for now), the 40-year-old starter will attempt to recreate the impressive form he displayed during his final triple-A rehab start last week, where he punched out eight over 4.1 scoreless innings of one-hit ball.

How the rest of Toronto’s rotation will take shape in Cleveland remains unclear, although we do know that Eric Lauer and Kevin Gausman will start the other two games in this series. But in which order is still unknown.

On the opposing side, the Blue Jays will face two of the Guardians’ top starters, Gavin Williams (Wednesday) and Tanner Bibee (Thursday) — but they should miss Garrett Crochet versus the Red Sox — in a series with potential playoff implications. Since this will be the final regular-season matchup between these two clubs, whoever wins the season series — Cleveland took two of three at Rogers Centre in May — will own the head-to-head tiebreaker for post-season seeding.

That may not seem significant in late June. But considering how tightly packed the AL standings are, you never know how things could play out down the stretch in September. As we’ve seen in recent seasons, tiebreakers can mean the difference between making the playoffs and missing them — think of last year’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Blue Jays have already missed the post-season by a single game before (2021). They’d hate to be in a similar position again this season.

Looking past this next series against the Guardians, there’s certainly an opportunity for this team to redeem itself over the next few weeks heading into the All-Star break. As much tough competition as they’ve faced across these first three months, the schedule will soften considerably leading into the Midsummer Classic, with favourable series against the Angels, White Sox and A’s.

Before then, of course, they’ll have to deal with the Guardians, Red Sox and Yankees — with the last of those three coming to Rogers Centre for a pivotal four-game series over Canada Day. While those won’t be easy matchups, at least not compared to the other three above, exiting that 10-game stretch above 5-5 should set them up to enter next month’s break with some serious momentum.

Not only would that help push the Blue Jays closer to the top of the American League, but it’d also likely bring their roster needs into focus ahead of the July 31 trade deadline while stamping their position as a clear-cut buyer.