Despite the rocky start to the season, the 2026 Blue Jays aren’t in the worst position after playing 46 games.

Currently, the Jays rank third in the AL East, and are 9.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and 6.5 games behind the second-place New York Yankees. Their four-game series in the Bronx against the Yankees will be a litmus test for surviving the tough AL East.

This is almost reminiscent of where the Jays were around last year, before they entered into a four-game series against the Yankees at Rogers Centre, starting on June 30. Back then, the Jays were also in third place, albeit with a slightly better win-loss record (45-38), and had to get past the Rays and the Yankees to take first place in their division. Here’s the summary of how the Blue Jays exactly did something improbable in the blink of an eye during that series.

The Blue Jays weren’t exactly blowing everyone’s mind away when they started the big four-game series against the Yankees in 2025.

Technically, they gave up runs first and helped demonstrate why New York was regarded as a powerhouse. That was until the Jays’ offence began to torment starting pitcher Carlos Rodon and persisted against the Yankees’ relievers. That resulted in the Blue Jays scoring just one more run than the Yankees (5-4) and winning the first game of the series. The Jays also took advantage of the Yankees’ defensive flaws to score runs. The Jays’ brand of baseball was putting balls in play. By this time, they were one of the offences that struck out the least; they were also known for making good contacts. That combination created a spark and began to make some magic on the field.

The second game of the series was all about George Springer. No one in the baseball industry expected the 35-year-old outfielder to have a renaissance at this stage of his career, but he defied the expectations – this game served as a testament to that.

On Canada Day last year, Springer drove seven runs off three hits. And one of those hits was a grand slam that tilted the momentum in the Jays’ favour by the bottom of the seventh inning.

Before the outfielder came up to bat with the bases loaded, the Blue Jays had a razor-thin lead against the Yankees (5-4), but everything changed when Springer took a mighty hack against reliever Luke Weaver in a 2-1 count.

That grand slam gave the Jays a lopsided lead with the team having nine runs, instead of five, and the rest was history. The Jays then scored three more runs, making the final score 12-5. Toronto would have won that game without the grand slam, but Springer’s magical moment was a decisive factor that helped the team gain more confidence while making Canada Day extra special for fans across the country. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if he got an honorary citizenship after this performance.

The Blue Jays didn’t miss a beat after Canada Day. In fact, the Jays’ lineup downright tortured Yankees’ starter Will Warren from the jump and managed to score seven runs in the first inning.

Those seven runs included Addison Barger and Davis Schneider’s home runs, which paved the way for an easy series win, in theory.

The unfortunate part about this game was how close the Yankees were to changing the tide altogether. New York ate away at Toronto’s lead slowly but also rather quickly at the same time. What was an 8-3 game turned into an 8-6 game after Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run homer. After a bases-loaded jam, the Jays gave up one more run and turned it into an 8-7 game. Schneider hits a solo home run to give the Jays some cushion, but sadly, Aaron Judge erased that lead by hitting a two-run shot all the way to the second deck (9-9).

When the Yankees sent out their late-inning reliever Devin Williams, the Jays relied on his command issues and their patience at the plate to score two more runs, just enough to win the series by 11-9. This game highlighted the Jays’ tenacity and put the team in a position to take over the division. The Jays were only one game back from the division lead – that was a good place to be.

The last game of this important series in the AL East was packed with drama. The Jays continued their early trend in the series by scoring and attacking the Yankees’ pitching first, while the Yankees battled back to tie the game by the top of the fourth (3-3). Losing a lead for these Jays wasn’t an issue because this team knew how to fight right back. At the bottom of the fourth, Nathan Lukes doubled after putting up a 14-pitch battle against reliever Clayton Beeter and gave the Blue Jays two more runs (5-3). Not long after, Barger hit a solo home run to make the score 6-3.

The Yankees rallied back in this game to score two more runs (6-5), but Springer decided he needed to hit one more home run at the bottom of the eighth against Weaver again. With his two-run home run, the Blue Jays now had a three-run lead (8-5). That’s all they needed to secure a series sweep at home and take the division lead.

Once again, Springer was one of the biggest contributors in this game, with his two-run home runs at the bottom of the third and the bottom of the eighth. There were many other contributors throughout the lineup as well, like Barger and Lukes, and that’s precisely why the Blue Jays could become the team to watch. They clicked on all cylinders, and most of all, their pitching and hitting picked each other up.

This was the moment the Blue Jays clicked on all cylinders and proved themselves. That’s the kind of momentum the 2026 Blue Jays hope to replicate now on this long road trip. The circumstances might be slightly different now, but the mission stays the same – find your spark and start spreading the news.

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