TORONTO — It’s been quite the emotional swing over the last 48 hours for Nathan Lukes.

During the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 5-3 defeat to the Kansas City Royals, Lukes stepped into the batter’s box with runners on the corners and two outs, attempting to keep the Blue Jays’ comeback rally alive. He wound up signalling into left field, scoring a pair of runs to bring his club back within two of a tie game — only for him to be thrown out at second base to end the game.

Lukes committed a baserunning mistake in that moment, attempting to stretch his single into a double to advance into scoring position with Vladimir Guerrero Jr due up next. It was a high-risk decision that didn’t pose a significant reward, seeing as he wasn’t the tying run, and it ended up ripping the bat out of No. 27’s hands.

The next day, when Lukes arrived at the stadium, he walked into manager John Schneider’s office and gave Toronto’s skipper a big hug, apologizing for the previous night’s blunder. But the two quickly moved past the incident, turning attention to the next game at hand.

As the baseball gods would have it, another pivotal moment found Lukes later that night — and this time, he made good on finding his redemption swing.

Following a pair of singles from George Springer and Jesús Sánchez to lead off the bottom half of the fourth inning, Lukes turned on a 1-0 inside changeup from Royals starter Randy Dobnak, depositing it a projected 390 feet to the right-centre power alley for a three-run home run — his ninth of the season and third in the last five games — that powered Toronto to a 3-0 victory.

All he needed to do next was jog around the bases and touch home plate, fitting after what transpired the night before.

Hours before the game, after Lukes met with Schneider in his office, a few of his Blue Jays teammates walked up to him in the clubhouse and told him he was “going to come up big” to make amends for Tuesday’s mistake. In the end, he only needed two at-bats to pull it off.

For players, one of the best things about baseball is that the next day’s game can act as the perfect cleanser. Through the highs and lows of a gruelling, six-month season, costly mistakes can be fixed as soon as just 24 hours later. In Lukes’ case, his page-turning swing couldn’t have arrived at a better time.

As a whole, the 32-year-old outfielder is pleased with how he’s been feeling at the plate lately, too, particularly with his ability to hit for authority to the pull side. Results-wise, subtracting his early-season struggles as he dealt with vertigo symptoms, he enters Thursday’s series finale against the Royals riding an impressive .286/.338/.418 slash line and a 114 wRC+ (100 league average) over his last 85 games.

With nine home runs this year, the left-handed-hitting veteran sits tied with Ernie Clement for third-most on the team, behind Springer’s 12 and Kazuma Okamoto’s 26 — the most by a Blue Jays rookie in franchise history.

Lukes, of course, isn’t known for his power. But he’s capable of chipping in when everything’s synced up. Following weeks of hard work behind the scenes with hitting coach David Popkins and the organization’s hitting department, they have him looking like a freshly tuned-up car right now.

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