'It's just Kirky': 4-hit night helps lift Blue Jays to 9th win in 11 games

TORONTO -- Perhaps these aren’t the same old Blue Jays.

As calm turned to chaos late Monday night at Busch Stadium, the Blue Jays showed us all what they’ve spent the past four months talking about. They keep saying something feels different this season and that’s what different looks like.

Monday’s 5-4 win was one of their best of the season, a win stolen from a loss after it looked like they’d fumbled away an easy one. The context here is the ugly part, headlined by Yariel Rodríguez giving up a three-run homer to Iván Herrera in the bottom of the eighth which gave the Cardinals the lead. The story, though, is how the Blue Jays bounced back, setting the stage for Alejandro Kirk's big night to carry them to their ninth win in 11 games.

“They do not quit and they have each other’s backs. That’s a really good feeling,” John Schneider said.

First came Jonatan Clase, the No. 9 hitter who stumbled into the night with a .540 OPS. Clase launched a 415-foot shot to right-center off closer Ryan Helsley to tie the game, stunning the hometown crowd that had just been whipped into a frenzy. Clase was the last player on the roster you’d expect that moment from, but there's been some magic in the bottom half of this lineup lately.

Rodríguez’s eighth inning was dreadful, but he skipped out of the dugout for the ninth, spit his trademark cloud of water into the night air and stomped back onto the mound, almost angry at it. The inning took him just eight pitches and he struck out the final two batters swinging before stomping right back down that mound, pumping his fists and shouting.

Rodríguez helped make the mess, but he also helped Kirk clean it up.

“That’s awesome. He’s good. He is not going to back down,” Schneider said. “As soon as that inning was over, [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] went up to him and said, ‘If we tie this up, you’re back in so stay locked in.’ He did that. He’s got that factor about him in big spots where he’s going to rise to the occasion and not back down from anything.”

Kirk had homered earlier in the game, a rocket to center that looked more like one of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s classic line drives. That gave the Blue Jays some breathing room at the time, 3-0, which felt like it would be enough, but Kirk came right back around to break the game open again in the 10th with a double to left field.

“You’ll have to ask Kirky. He’s full of words,” Schneider said, breaking into a grin. “Cast your votes for him for the All-Star Game. His numbers with two strikes and late in games are ridiculous. I go back to him being even keeled. The best way to say it is that he’s just Kirky. That’s all I’ve got. It’s just Kirky.”

The meaning runs a little deeper, though. Kirk isn’t just the quirky catcher, the contact machine who doesn’t look like your average ballplayer. He really means something to this clubhouse and it’s starting to show.

“I think he’s really taking a step forward in understanding how important he is to this team,” Schneider said. “We can say, ‘It’s just Kirky,’ but he understands that he’s a big part of it. He’s running the pitching staff. He’s getting big hits. Guys really feed off of that, too. He’s leaning into that. I love it.”

Even the stoic Kirk cracked a smile when he spoke about Clase’s first home run of 2025.

“It’s part of the growth from last year,” Kirk said through a club interpreter. “You don’t want to be in that position all the time, but when you come back like that, you can enjoy that as a team. It’s great, all of these comebacks.”

José Berríos, who left the game when it still looked like an easy win, called this a “playoff game." It’s all of that time spent together off the field, he believes, that’s finally showing up between the lines.

There was almost relief in Schneider’s voice after the win, mixed in with the joy. This is what he’s been talking about, too.

“It’s just so different from last year,” he said.

Different is good. Different might even be great. These aren’t the Blue Jays who stumbled in 2024 and seemed to be running out of gas all together. Instead, this is starting to feel like a team full of possibility.