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Series Recap: Blue Jays’ offence shows signs of life in series win over Pirates
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Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
May 25, 2026, 08:00 EDTUpdated: May 24, 2026, 18:37 EDT
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There is some good and some bad to take away from the Toronto Blue Jays’ weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The good: they managed to win the series, now having lost just two series in their last nine. The Jays also had a very 2025 Blue Jays-esque game against Paul Skenes on Saturday. More on that later.
It wasn’t all good though, because both Dylan Cease and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. departed Sunday’s game with an apparent injury. Losing either of them for an extended period of time would be devastating to the Blue Jays’ hopes of returning to the World Series. To make matters worse, the Blue Jays beat themselves on Sunday.
But let’s start with Friday’s game first. They returned to Rogers Centre after winning four of seven games on the road trip. The game started off poorly, as former Blue Jay Spencer Horwitz hit a sacrifice fly to give the Pirates an early lead.
After two scoreless innings, George Springer reached base on a catcher interference to lead off the bottom of the third, then Guerrero Jr. hit a single. Daulton Varsho put the ball in play, and a fielding error by Horwitz scored a runner, while Varsho and Guerrero Jr. stood on second and third respectively. After Kazuma Okamoto struck out, Yohendrick Piñango scorched a ball at 114.8 mph, driving in both base runners.
There was no scoring for the next four innings, but the Pirates cut the Blue Jays’ lead to one in the top of the eighth thanks to a lead-off walk and a single surrendered by Mason Fluharty With Louis Varland replacing Fluharty,  a wild pitch and a ground out cashed in that run.
Thankfully, Varland was nails that inning, striking out a batter and inducing a ground out to strand a runner at third. The Jays restored their lead and then some in the bottom of the eighth, as Ernie Clement,  Jesús Sánchez, and George Springer all hit doubles, giving the Jays a 6-2 lead. Varland fired a perfect top of the ninth with two strikeouts, picking up his seventh save of the season.
Credit to a strong outing by Kevin Gausman as well, going six and two-thirds innings with one run allowed and eight strikeouts.
Saturday’s game saw Patrick Corbin outduel Paul Skenes. On the third pitch a Blue Jays’ hitter saw, Springer took Skenes deep for an early 1-0 lead. It wasn’t until the top of the sixth that either team scored another run, as Sánchez had a poor route on a fly ball, resulting in a double and Corbin’s lone earned run.
But with Skenes on the mound for the bottom of the sixth, Guerrero Jr. led off the inning with a single, followed by Piñango’s single. Sánchez hit his second double of the day to cash in a run, then Ernie Clement hit an RBI single to chase Skenes. With runners on the corners and no outs, Andrés Giménez grounded into a double play, but a run scored.
Tyler Heineman hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh, putting the Blue Jays up 5-1. They didn’t need all the insurance runs, but the Pirates scored their second run of the game in what was a 5-2 Blue Jays’ victory.
Looking to complete their first sweep since the series opener, Dylan Cease took the ball for the Jays on Sunday afternoon. On the first pitch, Horwitz took him deep. In the following inning, Oneil Cruz hit a home run to put the Pirates up 2-0.
The Jays scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a Clement single, but left two runners stranded when Giménez lined out to end the inning.
If the Jays don’t turn their season around, we can look to the fifth inning of this game as a reason why it went downhill. In the top of the fifth, Cease departed the game with what has been called mild left hamstring discomfort. Then in the bottom half of the inning, Guerrero Jr. was hit in the elbow and immediately went into the dugout. Thankfully, it just turned out to be an elbow contusion, as his X-rays came back negative for a fracture.
While it seems like the Blue Jays dodged the worst case scenario, they still lost this game 4-1, as Chase Lee gave up a two-run home run in the top of the sixth. Realistically, they beat themselves, going a measly 1-12 with runners in scoring position while stranding 10.
Still, a series win is a series win, and the Jays will look to continue their home stand with another series win to begin this week. They’ll host the Miami Marlins for a three-game series beginning on Monday.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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