The Toronto Blue Jays are hanging onto their wild card hopes by a thread.

Fresh off losing consecutive games for the first time in a month (July 21 and 22 against the Tampa Bay Rays), the Blue Jays needed to turn things around fast. They did just that as Nathan Lukes’ three-run shot in the bottom of the fourth inning powered the Blue Jays to a 3-0 win over the Kansas City Royals at Rogers Centre on Wednesday.

Thanks to that swing and a bullpen-day shutout, the Blue Jays improved to 65-69 and are now three games back of the Guardians for the final American League wild-card spot.

The Blue Jays’ offence has struggled with runners in scoring position recently, but it’s also struggled overall all season long. Lukes’ home run was Toronto’s first extra-base hit with multiple runners on since Myles Straw smacked a two-run double against the Red Sox two weeks ago.

But while the Blue Jays offence ranks 28th with a 92 wRC+, their bullpen ranks top 10 in strikeout rate, and they got the job done again. Toronto now has a 10-6 record in bullpen days this season.

Dallas pitched proceeded to set down all eight batters he faced, striking out four, concluding with a swinging strikeout of Bobby Witt. Mason Fluharty, Paul Sewald, Tyler Rogers, and Louis Varland then combined for 3.2 scoreless innings, highlighted by Varland entering for a four-out save. The tying run came to the plate in both innings, but the Blue Jays closer got a first-pitch groundout from Caglianone in the eighth and struck out Isaac Collins to seal his 30th save of the season. 

FanGraphs projected the red-hot Guardians to claim the final wild-card spot with 83 wins entering play Wednesday. The Blue Jays need to go 18-10 over their final 28 games to match that.

But they can’t win 18 games in one night. They can only do it like they did on Wednesday, one at a time.