There is only one first-place team in the AL East right now, and it’s the Toronto Blue Jays.
With an 8-5 win over the New York Yankees on Thursday, the Blue Jays completed a sweep of their division rival and took over sole possession of first place in the process. Their record sits at 49-38 with the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays each one game behind them at 48-39.
It’s been nearly a decade since Toronto was in this position. The last time it held full control of first place in July or later was 2016, when it led the division for much of August and early September before the Boston Red Sox took over.
In this case, the Jays got there with a four-game series that went from highly anticipated to downright cathartic. The first game was close, the second turned into a blowout, while the third game was nearly a disaster.
Thursday’s game was a back-and-forth. The Blue Jays struck first with an Addison Barger RBI double in the first inning, then Trent Grisham homered to tie the game in the third. George Springer hit a two-run homer to put Toronto ahead again in the bottom of the third, but New York responded with a two-run rally in the fourth.
The big hit came in the game’s longest at-bat. With two runners in scoring position, leadoff hitter Nathan Lukes faced off against Yankees reliever Clayton Beeter, who took over after starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt left the game with forearm tightness.
He quickly fell behind 0-2, then fouled off eight pitches to stay alive. On the 14th pitch of the at-bat, Lukes hit the go-ahead double.
Barger added a solo homer an inning later to make it a three-run lead, which the Yankees cut to one with a two-run rally in the seventh inning. They nearly threatened again in the eighth, and then Cody Bellinger swung at a pitch flying toward his chest.
Springer homered again in the bottom of the eighth to put Toronto comfortably ahead. Across the series, the Jays designated hitter was 8 for 14 with four homers, four walks and 11 RBI.
Few expected the Blue Jays to be in this position as the All-Star break nears. The dominant conversation around the team in the offseason wasn’t whether they would contend, it was whether they should sell if they couldn’t convince star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to stay long term.
They checked off the extension box with a $500 million contract extension, but they’re now in the process of trying to do something even harder. The peripherals, such as a plus-nine run differential (the Yankees are plus-100 and the Rays are plus-69), suggest they may be overperforming, but there has been some legitimate progress with this group, with breakout seasons by Barger and third baseman Ernie Clement.
Staying ahead in the AL East will be a hard task, but just getting to this position more than three months into the season was arguably even harder. As recently as May 28, the Blue Jays were eight full games behind the Yankees.
Toronto also has one of the easiest stretches going into the All-Star break, with series against the Los Angeles Angels, Chicago White Sox and Athletics.
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