Saturday afternoon’s game at Sahlen Field looked like most of the ones you’ve seen between the Blue Jays and Rays over the past few seasons, but the roles were reversed. 

It was suddenly the Rays who were booting the ball around and the Blue Jays who were playing the airtight brand of baseball, capitalizing at all the right times. A tight game through the middle innings, the dam finally burst in the sixth, and the Blue Jays cruised to a 6-3 win in Buffalo, N.Y.

• Box score

George Springer got the Blue Jays going, launching his second home run in as many days since manager Charlie Montoyo moved him up to the cleanup spot between Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernández. The strategy here is that the three hitters will protect one another, forcing pitchers to face Springer if they shy away from Guerrero and Hernández if they can’t handle the $150 million man in the cleanup spot.

There will be days where that three-headed monster takes a game over entirely, but this Blue Jays lineup is deep enough to win games in a dozen different ways. On Saturday, it grinded out the sixth inning to load the bases and brought in the go-ahead run on a ground ball that Joey Wendle tried to come home with for the forceout but threw wide of the catcher. It wasn’t pretty, but if you keep putting pressure on teams, they’ll help you out eventually.

Toronto’s cushion came from the Nos. 7 and 8 spots in the lineup, when Cavan Biggio singled home a pair and then Santiago Espinal launched a two-run home run to left field. It was Espinal’s first Major League home run in his 72nd career game, a fine way for him to step into a bigger role after veteran infielder Joe Panik was recently traded to the Marlins for Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson.

“It was amazing to see my teammates jumping and screaming,” Espinal said. “It was amazing. The coaches, too. As soon as I came into the dugout, it was just a special moment. I couldn’t hear anything because it was so loud. But thank God for that special moment, and thank God for the ‘W.’”

This brings the Blue Jays to the halfway mark of their season at 43-38. Toronto has looked like a postseason threat at some points and a year away at others, so it makes sense to see the team land in the middle still trailing these Rays and the Red Sox in the American League East. With 81 down and 81 to go, here’s what the big picture looks like:

What has worked: An elite lineup powering the Blue Jays|
The Blue Jays can hit, period. If they don’t reach the postseason this year, it won’t be for a lack of offense.

In a perfect world, that’s working hand in hand with a great pitching staff and bullpen, but Toronto will need to lean on this lineup to carry the team at times. The Blue Jays have certainly been playing better lately, and a sweep of the Rays this weekend would be another shot in the arm for a club that still seems capable of that eight- or 10-game tear that changes everything.

“The talent up and down our lineup is awesome,” said Ross Stripling, who turned in another strong outing with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, “and then on the mound we’re doing our thing and keeping us in games. Through the halfway mark, I feel like we’ve got to be really confident with where we’re at. Going for the sweep against a really good team tomorrow in the Rays, if we can get that, it would be awesome. This has been a big series for us. I think we should be as confident as anybody out there.”

What needs to improve: The bullpen and pitching depth
The offense can’t do this alone, at least not every game. The Blue Jays need more from their bullpen, which is obvious to anyone who has watched a game over the past two months, and there’s room to improve the rotation depth, as well.

“We’ve got to keep pitching and we’ve got to keep catching it,” Montoyo said. “We’re going to hit, so that’s the main deal. You’re going to win in this league with pitching and defense. That’s what it is.”

Stripling has been a major part of this, pitching to a 2.35 ERA over his last eight starts following a very rough start to the season. The defense has improved, too, at least compared to 2020. Now that the Blue Jays have made the jump from rebuilding to contending, though, the margins get thinner, and they need to show more of what they did on Saturday in Buffalo.