When everyone doubted the Blue Jays to figure out some sort of consistency, the Blue Jays proved the doubters wrong by going on one of the unlikeliest hot streaks. What was supposed to be a difficult road trip then became a breeze as the Jays took two games out of the series against the  Minnesota Twins and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in a three-game series. Toronto had a 5-1 road record heading to Philadelphia and six wins in their pocket against the A’s and Phillies before heading on the road. Nothing could stop them from going on a tear in theory.

However, the biggest caveat with theories is that they only unfold perfectly in our heads. The harsh reality is that theories can turn into fantasies all too easily, and the bubbles eventually burst. For the Blue Jays, their reality check came in the form of the Phillies exacting their revenge and sweeping the Jays at Citizens Bank Park. There’s no eloquent way of putting it – the seemingly unstoppable offence faltered, and the Jays’ pitching staff faltered in a few areas.

The Blue Jays’ hot streak was always going to come to an end. Even the teams that had 12 or 13-game win streaks in the past couple of seasons couldn’t sustain their win pace, and inevitably lost that momentum. There was an option for Canada’s team to keep up with the red-hot streak on the road if they outplayed the Phillies, but they simply didn’t have enough to overcome their NL East rival.

You see, the Phillies have been a force to be reckoned with for the past three years. They have been more successful than the Jays in the playoffs and even earned a chance to compete in the World Series stage in 2022. Despite their wildly constructed roster, it features heavy hitters like Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Trea Turner, and the Phillies have always found ways to win more games than most teams in the league. On the pitching side, Philadelphia also had compelling and competent starting pitchers like Mick Abel, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez and Zack Wheeler, who gave the team more chances to win and shut down opponents altogether.

Cynicism was all over the air in late May when Toronto was barely above .500 in late May. The funny thing about doom and gloom is that it motivates someone or something to do the improbable, and that’s exactly what happened for the good part of their recent schedule. In their last 14 games before arriving at Citizen Bank Park, the Blue Jays averaged 6.4 runs and batted .303 with 24 home runs. This was also a time when José Berríos, Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk and George Springer all performed above and beyond their expectations. Winning five consecutive series was no small feat, and this upward trend helped the team garner the positive recognition and attention it deserved after undergoing long stretches of struggles.

Team building and bonding were supposed to be the fuel the Blue Jays needed to rise above for a longer period. Except it all came crashing down as Toronto sank to a paltry slashline of .185/.230/.206 for their three agonizing games in Philadelphia – that’s compared to the Phillies’ slashline of .307/.414/.486. Aside from the nail-biting game on Saturday, Philadelphia outscored Toronto by miles on Friday (0-8) and Sunday (4-11). Based on the win-loss results alone, it was also crystal clear that the Phillies had enough arms to outpitch and even shut out the Blue Jays’ offence. In the face of tougher challenges, the Blue Jays couldn’t take advantage of any situation, and the aura of the red-hot team faded just like that. They bested the Phillies earlier this month at the Rogers Centre and couldn’t repeat the feat on the road.

In the business of baseball, losing isn’t an anomaly. It’s expected because baseball is very much a game of failure. Even though Toronto’s most recent failure came at the hands of a strong World Series contender, there is always a way out of a funk. The best way to get out of a slump is to forget and move on. Yesterday is in the past; tomorrow is far away, and today is an unknown.

Which all leads to one thing: the Blue Jays have to flip the script and continue their winning ways as soon as today.

If the version of the Blue Jays we’ve seen during their fifth straight series win isn’t a mirage, they will find their way back to their winning ways, no matter how challenging the opponents are on their schedule. But if the version of the Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park is truer to their identity, we won’t be able to completely rule out an excruciating freefall. This will all come to a test as Toronto hosts the surging Arizona Diamondbacks and a Chicago White Sox squad that shouldn’t win a single game North of the border if the Jays show up.

For several years, the Blue Jays sought their happily ever after, only for the search to end in heartbreak each year. This season has been an unintentional roller coaster thus far, as the team experienced the lows of being at the bottom of the division and the highs of having a shot at maintaining the top Wild Card spot. And yet, this year is the Blue Jays’ best chance at finding their happily ever after, at least with the core they currently have.