From the field at Rogers Centre, you could feel it coming. The moment Bo Bichette stepped to the plate in the seventh inning, there was that familiar electricity—something Toronto fans have been waiting to consistently feel again. When his bat connected, sending that fastball deep into the left-field stands, the eruption from the crowd told the story of not just one game, but potentially a season turning around.
Bichette’s three-run homer powered the Blue Jays to a convincing 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers yesterday, marking their fourth straight win and continuing what’s becoming one of the more remarkable mid-season turnarounds in recent memory.
“Sometimes you just need that one moment to spark something bigger,” Bichette told me in the clubhouse after the game, still wearing the home run jacket that’s getting plenty of use lately. “We’ve been grinding all season, and things are finally clicking when it matters most.”
The Blue Jays, who struggled through a difficult May and June, have now won nine of their last eleven games since the All-Star break. This surge has pulled them within 4.5 games of the final Wild Card spot—territory that seemed unreachable just three weeks ago.
For Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, whose team has now dropped seven straight and fallen into last place in the AL Central, the game represented everything going wrong for Detroit. “We’re pressing too much right now,” Hinch admitted. “That’s a team over there that’s found their confidence, and we’re still searching for ours.”
What made Bichette’s blast particularly satisfying for the Rogers Centre faithful was the context. The shortstop had been mired in his own slump for much of 2025, battling through two separate injured list stints and hitting just .249 entering yesterday’s contest—well below his career average.
Kevin Gausman delivered another stellar outing for Toronto, scattering five hits over seven innings while striking out nine Tigers. The veteran right-hander has been a stabilizing force in the rotation, posting a 2.43 ERA over his last six starts.
“The difference lately has been trusting the defense behind me,” Gausman explained. “When Bo and the guys are making plays like they did today, it gives you confidence to attack hitters differently.”
Toronto’s recent surge coincides with some strategic roster moves by general manager Ross Atkins ahead of next week’s trade deadline. The acquisition of veteran outfielder Michael Conforto from the Padres last week has injected immediate offense, while the bullpen additions have solidified the late innings.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a second-inning double, sees something special building. “We never lost belief in this clubhouse,” Guerrero said through an interpreter. “Even when we were ten games under .500, we knew what kind of talent we had here.”
According to Baseball Reference, the Blue Jays’ playoff odds have jumped from just 8% at the beginning of July to nearly 26% following yesterday’s win. That remarkable shift reflects not just statistical probability but the momentum of a team finding its identity at precisely the right moment.
For the Tigers, this series has been a continuation of their second-half slide. After a promising start that had them hovering around .500 at the All-Star break, Detroit has gone 3-14 since, with their offense producing just 2.8 runs per game during that stretch.
The contrast between the teams was evident in the eighth inning when Toronto tacked on two insurance runs through small ball—something they struggled with earlier in the season. Conforto’s perfectly executed hit-and-run set up Alejandro Kirk’s two-run single that essentially sealed the game.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider, whose job security was questioned just a month ago, now looks like a potential Manager of the Year candidate if this turnaround continues. His decision to shuffle the lineup, moving Bichette to the cleanup spot three games ago, has yielded immediate dividends.
“Sometimes you need to shake things up,” Schneider said. “Bo’s always been a guy who thrives on pressure situations, and putting him in that four-hole has given our lineup a different dynamic.”
The series concludes today with Alek Manoah facing Detroit’s Casey Mize in what could be a pivotal game for both teams’ trajectories heading into the final two months of the season.
As I watched Bichette field questions from the media scrum, you could sense a different energy around this Blue Jays team—one that believes rather than hopes. In a season that once seemed lost, Toronto has found something that can’t be measured in batting averages or ERA: momentum.
And in baseball’s long season, sometimes that’s the most valuable statistic of all.
