Blue Jays Hoping Recent Hot Streak Is Not a Case of Too Little, Too Late

Welcome back, Canadian baseball enthusiasm.

Welcome back, optimism.

Welcome back, expectations.

Welcome back, Toronto Blue Jays. 

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Our streaking Blue Jays are creeping back into the wild card race. Now 3.5 back with 17 games left to play.

— Anthony Farnell (@AnthonyFarnell) September 11, 2014"

It was just about two weeks ago that the Blue Jays were a team thought to be dead on the side of the American League road to the postseason, having lost three in a row and 10 of their previous 13 to fall six-and-a-half games out of the second wild-card berth with four teams ahead of them. It was a safe assumption, at the time, that the Jays were just waiting for the scavenging buzzards to pick them off.

“We just gotta hope it all comes together, and it will,” manager John Gibbons told the Toronto Sun on Aug. 19. “It has before.”

And then, just like that, life, along with the hope that this all isn’t too little, too late for a team that has broken the last two spring trainings with championship aspirations and a payroll to match.

Toronto has gone on a ridiculous run that has taken them from a non-contender to a fringe hopeful for that coveted second wild card.

Nine wins in their last 11 games after Wednesday’s sweep of the Chicago Cubs and the Jays find themselves in a real hunt for the final playoff spot, just three-and-a-half games out with 17 left to play, and with two teams—the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners—standing between them and October baseball.

A huge reason for this resurgence is the pitching, which has a 2.42 ERA during these last 11 games, and the rotation has been particularly impressive. Starters have pitched at least six innings in 17 consecutive games, which had not been done by a Toronto rotation since 1998, according to MLB.com. And they are putting this run together despite the absence of a true ace in the group.

Drew Hutchison has been a big part of the rotation’s success recently, having thrown his fourth consecutive quality start Wednesday. Mark Buehrle has been dominant in his last two starts (15 innings, two runs), as has R.A. Dickey in his last three (20 innings, four earned runs). 

Over their last 13 games, the Jays have the second-best ERA in the league (2.37), and that’s surprising everyone, even guys in their dugout.

Steven Senne/Associated Press

“They've really picked it up,” Gibbons told Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. “Even coming into the season, that was really the question mark of the team, 'How was the rotation going to hold up?'

“They're pitching a lot better than I expected if you want to know the truth."

The truth is also that the Blue Jays are a long shot unless they keep winning at this kind of clip for the next two-plus weeks.

The Jays built themselves up before the 2013 season, acquiring big names like Jose Reyes, Dickey and Buehrle, among others, in a show that they were willing to spend for quality players and an American League pennant. But injuries and overall inconsistent play kept them out of the postseason last year and up until a couple weeks ago, it appeared they would again drown in their $129 million payroll this year.

This run has been nice but it has come against some non-contending teams like the Tampa Bay Ray, Boston Red Sox and Cubs. But make-or-break time is here.

Following this upcoming weekend series against the Rays, the Blue Jays have three against the first-place Baltimore Orioles on the road and they start the final week of the season hosting the Seattle Mariners for four games and finish with Baltimore. The Mariners are one of the team’s ahead of the Jays, along with the Detroit Tigers.

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Dare I say it? Blue Jays have Mariners -- the team ahead of them in wild card standings -- at home for 4 games during final week.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 11, 2014"

As it stands, the Blue Jays are in the mix. But an inconsistent season—one in which they followed a 21-9 May with a 12-15 June and a 15-11 July with a 9-17 August—has taken away all their slack and left virtually no margin for error.

Lose one game this weekend and it’s devastating. Lose two and it’s pretty much over. That is how the Blue Jays have to look at the remainder of their season. Stumble a little too much and the leaders move ahead as the finish line gets closer.

This recent run is great for the organization. It knows it can play this kind of baseball because it has during this season, but too often they crippled their chances and now they have to hope this hot stretch is not too little, too late.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous 3 seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.