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Blue Jays: Looking at improbable season turnarounds
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Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Aug 18, 2026, 18:45 EDTUpdated: Aug 18, 2026, 18:41 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays have been one of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball this August.
They entered the All-Star break with a 45-51 record, but proceeded to lose seven of their next 10 games, culminating in a 6-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on July 26th. Because of the stretch, the Jays had a 48-58 record, five and a half games back of the final wild card with six teams to jump.
With the trade deadline looming, it looked as if the Jays were going to sell, even with a 4-2 stretch heading into August 3rd’s deadline. They may have managed to win two consecutive series, but the Jays gained a single game in the wild card race.
They sold, but they’ve continued to win, winning series against the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees, four teams currently occupying a playoff spot. This tough stretch continues, taking on the Tampa Bay Rays and Yankees on the road.
But after Sunday, August 23rd, the Blue Jays have one of the easiest schedules on paper. They’ll have 30 games against five of the six teams fighting for the final wild card spot, six against the Baltimore Orioles, and three against the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians, and Seattle Mariners. Their other 12 games are against the Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, and Athletics.
What looked improbable just over three weeks ago looks doable, especially now that the Jays are just a half game back of the final wild card spot. It won’t be easy by any means, as the six other teams fighting for the spot range from being tied to just two games back.
The team that gets hottest will make the playoffs, that’s not rocket science. But as impressive as making up nearly six games with a little over two months remaining is, it’s not even close to the first time it’s happened in MLB.
Let’s take a look at some of the improbable turnarounds over the years.

2007 Rockies

With how bad the Colorado Rockies have been since the start of the 2020s, it’s hard to remember a time they were actually good. The team from Denver is rather unforgettable, but that wasn’t the case in the autumn of 2007.
On September 15th, 2007, the Rockies fell 10-2 to the Florida Marlins, their third consecutive loss. With two weeks left in the season, they sat four and a half games back of the wild card spot with three teams to jump. Then, one of the best late season rallies in all of sports happened. 
The Rockies won the series finale 13-0, kick-starting a stretch where they won 13 of 14 games, going from four and a half games back of the wild card spot to forcing a Game 163. It looked as if the Cinderella Run was about to end, as they were down 8-6 in the bottom of the 13th, but the Rockies went on to score three to win in walk-off fashion.
That momentum didn’t stop in the postseason, sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Divisional Series, then sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS. Those Diamondbacks were the lone team to beat the Rockies from September 16th until October 24th.
Sitting four and a half game back of the wild card spot and in search of their first pennant, the Rockies rattled off 21 wins in 22 games before a nine-day layoff caused them to be swept by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

2019 Nationals

Of the five improbable turnarounds we’re looking at in this article, the 2019 Washington Nationals were the lone team to go out and win the World Series.
They didn’t have a late-season rally like the Rockies, instead sitting 10 games back of the division-leaders on May 23rd. After a four-game series sweep at the hands of the New York Mets that moved their record to 19-31, the Nationals finished the season 74-38 to earn a playoff berth.
Awaiting them in the Wild Card Game were the Milwaukee Brewers, who were holding onto a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth. With a runner on and two outs, Ryan Zimmerman hit a single and Anthony Rendon walked to load the bases, setting up Juan Soto to hit a bases-clearing single (with the help of an error).
The Nationals held on to win that game. Then they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the NLDS, and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. They were able to do what the 2007 Rockies were unable to do, winning the World Series in seven over the Houston Astros.

2024 Tigers

The most applicable improbable turnaround that applies to the 2026 Blue Jays was just two years ago.
Everyone remembers how that year went for the Blue Jays, after making the postseason in three of the last four seasons, the Jays lost out on the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes and the season went downhill from there.
They were sellers at that season’s trade deadline, as were the Detroit Tigers. In fact, the two teams shared an identical 55-63 record entering August 11th’s game. The Jays went on to finish the season with a 74-88 record, but the Tigers did the opposite over their final 43 games.
Entering August 11th’s game 10 games behind the final wild card spot with a bunch of teams to jump, the Tigers won 31 of their next 43 games to secure the final wild card spot. They finished August winning 14 of 19 games, then went 17-8 in September to earn a first-round matchup against the Astros.
That momentum carried on in the playoffs, sweeping the 2017 and 2022 World Series champions to set up a date with the Cleveland Guardians. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Cinderella Run ended there, as the Guardians won in five.
Funnily enough, the inverse was true the following season. In September, the Guardians were double-digit games behind the Tigers for the American League Central lead, but got hot and earned a berth. It wasn’t until late in the season that the Tigers got it together and clinched the division. That set up a first-round matchup between the teams, with the Tigers winning the series this time around.

2015 Blue Jays

The last two seasons that ended with a five have been kind to the Blue Jays. Both years saw them erase an eight-game division lead en route to what should’ve been a World Series.
Starting with the 2015 Blue Jays, they fell 2-0 to the Washington Nationals on June 2nd, 2015 in the first game of a doubleheader. That loss dropped their record to 23-30, but they were still four and a half games back of the division.
The second game of the doubleheader went significantly better, as Kevin Pillar took Max Scherzer deep twice in a 7-3 victory. It started an 11 game winning streak, and the Jays even got to within one game of the division lead before losing.
A June that saw them go 18-9 positioned them to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993, but July was a tough one. Entering July 28th’s game, the Jays had won just nine of their 22 games, pushing them to eight games behind the division-leading New York Yankees.
That same day, the Jays acquired Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies. They won that game, the first of 14 wins in 15 games. A 10-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on August 12 put them ahead of the Yankees, and after losing the lead of the division for a week, the Jays took control of it on August 23rd and never relinquished it.
The division was by no means won at this point, but a Russell Martin home run on September 23rd, 2015, basically put any doubt aside. A few days later, the Jays officially clinched the division, but this home run here is something special.
To this day, I’d consider this my second favourite home run, slightly ahead of the José Bautista blast in the American League Divisional Series, but below George Springer’s home run in Game 7 of the 2025 American League Championship Series.

2025 Blue Jays

Speaking of those 2025 Blue Jays, their run to take control of the division-lead came even earlier in the season. On May 7th, they were walked off by the Los Angeles Angels, dropping their record to 16-20. They won their next four games, but found themselves playing .500 baseball until late-May.
The Jays were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, culminating in an embarrassing 13-0 loss on May 25th. They played three low-scoring games against the Texas Rangers, splitting the first two before Bo Bichette hit a two-run go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth on May 28th. Despite the win, the Jays sat eight games behind the Yankees for top spot in the AL East.
That late victory began a stretch of 13-3 baseball, cutting the division lead to just four games. Both the Yankees and Blue Jays struggled over the week and a half, but toward the end of June, the Jays welcomed the Yankees. For the first time in franchise history, the Blue Jays swept a four-game series at home against the Yankees, turning a three game deficit into a one-game lead, a lead they never relinquished. 
The defining moment from that series was a Springer grand slam, prompting me to write an article about how 2025 was starting to feel like 2015. Funnily enough, this article that you just read has been one that I’ve sat on for a while, waiting for the right time to release it.
I excluded quite a few memorable late-season rallies from over the years, they really aren’t that uncommon. But the question is, who says the 2026 Blue Jays can’t be the team that makes that rally?
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, DFOEdmonton, and DFOCalgary. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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