TORONTO -- There might be some magic in the 2025 Blue Jays.
George Springer delivered the swing of the season Tuesday in the seventh, a grand slam that shook Rogers Centre in a way we haven’t seen in a long, long time.
The Blue Jays’ 12-5 win brings them within one game of the Yankees in the AL East, too. Who cares that three months still sit between today and the postseason? It’s July now, the Trade Deadline and all its possibilities looming at the end of the month, and the Blue Jays are making the summer feel more interesting by the day. This stadium -- perhaps this entire organization -- feels alive again.
Springer’s home run was his second of the day, a towering shot that hung up in the air just long enough to add to the drama. Springer knew it, though. He’s hit 274 of these and now 100 with the Blue Jays.
“What he did today was pretty amazing. It was kind of a special feeling,” manager John Schneider said. “That’s a really good reliever in [the Yankees' Luke] Weaver, and it’s just an awesome swing. He was pumped up. The whole dugout was.”
Strolling out of the box, Springer ditched his bat and started to skip up the line. His feet barely touched the ground as he rounded the bases, bouncing and dancing as he howled along with the sellout crowd, all whipped into a red frenzy on Canada Day. By the time Springer stomped on home plate to join everyone else, he nearly ripped Tyler Heineman’s shoulder out of its socket with a high five.
Next time up, Springer just kept piling on with a two-run single shot right back up the middle in the eighth, finishing 3-for-4 with seven RBIs, a new career high for him in a single game. What a day, and what a season for the resurgent veteran who’s shut some people up along the way.
“He’s the guy you saw today who can completely take over a game,” Kevin Gausman said. “When he’s locked in, he can do that for an entire series and take over a whole series. He’s got every talent in the book. It’s still in there. He’s still the player he was in Houston.”
Springer, always quick to deflect the praise, instead poured that onto his teammates and the staff.
“For me, I know what Schneids wants from me, and I understand what he needs me to do,” Springer said. “I just try to execute a game plan. I think the biggest thing for me is that I’ve learned how to handle the failures, the ups and the downs.”
Right now, it’s all up.
Canada Day brings a different energy into the ballpark by default each July 1, but too many of these days have been wasted, The Curse of the Red Jersey growing stronger by the year. This all feels like the start of something, and like we saw back in 2015-16, when the Blue Jays can grab the Canadian market at just the right time, incredible things can happen.
Springer wasn’t alone, either. Andrés Giménez launched a three-run shot earlier in the game to give the Blue Jays a lead, just his fifth of the season and his first at Rogers Centre since that scorching start in March. Giménez has been stuck in a dreadful rut at the plate since then and spent nearly a month on the IL with a quad strain, but the Blue Jays don’t need him to be Aaron Judge at the dish. He’s a brilliant defender -- one of the best on the planet -- so all the Blue Jays need from Giménez is the odd moment with the bat.
This team just keeps bouncing back, too. Gausman gave up an early 2-0 lead, but the Blue Jays bounced right back. A pair of uncharacteristic defensive miscues brought the score back even again at 4-4, but it happened again. No team is more exciting to watch than a threatening one. Every pitch, every play and every inning begins to hold hope, even when the score looks ugly. Playing good baseball is most of the battle, but playing exciting baseball still matters. Besides, this is an entertainment business.
Springer’s grand slam was that in the highest form. It was one of those moments that, if the Blue Jays can turn this season into something worth remembering, we’ll be seeing again and again.