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Blue Jays look to maintain dominant play at home versus the Yankees
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Ian Finlayson
Jul 21, 2025, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 21, 2025, 17:18 EDT
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For the Toronto Blue Jays this season, there’s been no place like Dome.  
Having won their last 10 straight at home, sweeping three consecutive series against the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants, the Blue Jays are now 35-16 within the cozy confines of the Rogers Centre. This is a stark contrast from their 23-25 road record.  
Everything is better for the Blue Jays when they play in Toronto. They are raking at Rogers Centre, launching 69 home runs, fifth most at home in the Major Leagues, and posting an .805 team OPS, the second-best home mark besides the Los Angeles Dodgers. When playing in less familiar territory, the Blue Jays have struggled, hitting only 36 home runs and recording a .674 OPS, good for 28th and 25th in baseball, respectively. When it comes to straight-up offensive production, Toronto is third (273) in runs scored at home and 27 (185) on the road. 
On the pitching side, the difference isn’t as striking – the Blue Jays’ 4.20 ERA on the road is only slightly worse than their 4.06 mark at home. Yet they do have 492 strikeouts playing North of the border– the third best mark in MLB, while recording 392 as visitors.  
Stat 
Home  
Road 
Games  
51 
48 
Home runs 
69 
36 
OPS 
.805 
.674 
Runs 
273 
185 
wRC+ 
123 
89 
ERA 
4.06 
4.20 
Strikeouts 
492 
392 
K% 
25.2% 
22.3% 
K-BB% 
16.6% 
13.8% 
With the Yankees coming to town Monday for their second and final visit to Blue Jays Way of the season, Toronto will be counting on these splits to continue as they look to build on their three-game lead over New York in the American League East.  
So how are the Blue Jays playing so much better at home? Does it have something to do with the dimensions of the Rogers Centre and the conditions in Toronto? Are they adverse to the inconsistencies that come with playing games on the road? Are the summer vibes in Toronto that much better?  
The Rogers Centre has played as an offensively neutral environment by Statcast’s park factors over the past three seasons, with it playing slightly above average for doubles (103) and home runs (106). (Similar to wRC+, park factors are graded on a sliding scale where 100 is league average.) However, it has understandably improved both overall and when it comes to extra base hits (not including triples) since the redesigned infield chopped off some foul territory in 2024. As a result, more balls that would have been caught as outs end up as fouls in the stands.  
If we cut the sample down to just this season, which is a limited time frame to look at when it comes to park factors, the renovated Rogers Centre is playing more hitter-friendly than ever at 105. And while doubles remain consistent, home runs are up to 123, the third-best mark in the majors.  This also helps partially explain why Blue Jays pitchers have a bottom-five in HR/9 rate of 1.4 at home.  
Another piece of the puzzle regarding the Blue Jays’ road struggles is their lack of access to the same level of training equipment they have available in Toronto. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling reported in late June that the Blue Jays started travelling with an iPitch machine at the request of hitting coach David Popkins.  
The team is unable to transport the superior, Canadian-developed Trajekt machine due to its size; however, after removing some excess equipment and golf clubs from the team’s plane, they were able to fit the iPitch, which is a tenth of the size, according to Zwelling. 
Similar to the Trajekt, the iPitch can simulate the velocity, break and shape of specific pitchers’ arsenals, helping better prepare Blue Jays hitters for upcoming matchups. Since making the change, Toronto’s away hitting splits have seen significant improvement, with their wRC+ jumping from 85 before the change to 114 after.  
Finally, there is the factor of the home fans. While a roaring crowd is difficult to quantify outside of dubious in-arena decibel meters, it undoubtedly makes a difference.  
Justin Smoak, who first experienced what it feels like to play on a winning Blue Jays team in front of a packed ballpark during the 2015 season, shared the impact fans have on the Fan 590’s “Blue Jays Talk Plus.” 
“We basically played the last two-and-a-half, almost three months of the season at home to a sold-out crowd. It could have been Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, didn’t matter, it wasn’t just the weekend…
“Dog days of August, September, when you’re grinding, when you got sold out crowds like that, that keeps the adrenaline going, that helps you play better as a player. And I think those guys will see that this year. The closer they get, (if) they keep playing well, the adrenaline will be there, and it won’t be just the dog days of August (and) September.” 
The Rogers Centre is sold out for the big, bad Yankees Monday through Wednesday. And the Blue Jays will take all the help they can get to keep up their winning ways at home.  

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