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Davis Schneider’s ‘heads-up’ baserunning puts Blue Jays back on right side of fundamentals
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Apr 8, 2026, 21:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 8, 2026, 20:54 EDT
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TORONTO — Poorly executed fundamentals nearly sent the Blue Jays towards a seventh straight loss in Wednesday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers — that is, until baserunning fundamentals saved them from being swept for a second consecutive series.
Trailing 3-2 with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, up stepped Davis Schneider to the plate for his second plate appearance of the game after entering as a pinch-hitter in the seventh for outfielder Nathan Lukes. After drawing an ABS-assisted walk in his first trip, the 27-year-old Schneider worked another free pass off Dodgers right-hander Ben Casparius, and he let his baseball IQ take over from there.
Three pitches later, Andrés Giménez lined a 92.3-m.p.h. single into centre that was fielded by Andy Pages, who possesses the strongest arm amongst the Dodgers’ outfielders. But Schneider, thanks to his excellent read from first base, still managed to advance that extra 90 feet to put himself at third — affording the Blue Jays’ lineup two opportunities to score the winning run.
Only they didn’t need a base hit or sac-fly to drive him home. Instead, Schneider took matters into his own hands again. As Giménez broke for second, Schneider carefully observed Will Smith’s throw, and it’s a good thing too, as the on-line-throw bounced past Miguel Rojas and allowed him to score on the throwing error from the Dodgers’ All-Star backstop.
The Blue Jays practice baserunning situations like this all the time, guarding against what to do if the opposing team’s catcher pump-fakes his throw to second base in hopes of catching the runner on third sleeping. And that’s something Schneider said he was prepared for had Smith attempted that.
His initial read, though, was that Smith intended to throw through to second. Once the ball started rolling away, that’s when he knew it was time to take advantage.
“I didn’t want to get thrown out at home trying to double steal, so I was just trying to see it through and luckily they made a mistake,” Schneider said on his mindset before scoring the winning run in Toronto’s 4-3 victory on Wednesday, earning his team its first win of April.
Things worked out in the Blue Jays’ favour this time, and given how difficult it’s been to string together runs lately, these are the kinds of opportunities that this team has to “take advantage of in those margins,” as manager John Schneider described post-game.
Toronto’s skipper also called this an “all-around good game” from Davis, who’s been one of the lone productive hitters for this group that entered Wednesday’s finale having scored just 11 runs across their six-game losing skid. His playing time was tough to come by in this World Series rematch against the Dodgers, coming off the bench twice in as many games, but he made the most of both his plate appearances in the final meeting of this three-game set versus the two-time reigning champions.
Davis Schneider’s perfect execution of baserunning fundamentals is a great example of the brand of baseball that this franchise’s magical 2025 run to the Fall Classic was built on. Throughout the early stages of this season, however, the team has uncharacteristically struggled to execute those finer details, and it’s often proved costly — as it almost did again on Wednesday.
It’s how the Dodgers were able to immediately answer Jesús Sánchez’s RBI double in the top of the fourth, as Kazuma Okamoto’s throwing error to first base turned Will Smith’s single into a run-scoring opportunity for Freddie Freeman, who took full advantage by knotting the score at one run apiece with a hard-hit single (105.9 m.p.h. off the bat).
Later in the game, with the Dodgers leading 2-1, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the bottom of the sixth with a ringing, 108.7-m.p.h. double, providing his team with a chance to answer quickly themselves. Only for him to run into an unforced mistake as Rojas threw him out at third to extinguish that potential rally.
Either of those mistakes could’ve meant sacrificing a much-needed win. But instead, the Blue Jays can now enjoy a “great off-day,” as John Schneider put it, thanks to Davis taking advantage of the Dodgers’ lone blunder on the afternoon.
Big picture, though, it’ll be crucially important to start cleaning up these little, but important things moving forward.
“We’re only 11 games in (12 following Wednesday’s win), so there’s such a long season ahead of us. Obviously, we’re not starting the way that we kind of wanted to start with all the injuries and losses. But, there’s 149 games left (150 actually), so there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and hopefully we can use this as jump-starting to a winning streak,” Davis added.

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