Toronto beat Boston 8-1 on Wednesday and kept building momentum with its third consecutive series victory, a result that lifted the Blue Jays to 14-16. The club also opened its first 2026 state of the squad meeting before the series finale against the Red Sox, with the offense’s swing decisions again in focus.
Eric Lauer said the Jays are “playing good team ball” and that “everything’s kind of coming together,” while manager John Schneider said the team is swinging a lot and making plenty of contact, but chasing more too. Toronto’s contact rate has been elite at 78.4 percent, which ranked No. 5 in baseball, but its hard-hit rate has sat in the bottom third of the league, a split that has shaped the conversation around quality contact rather than raw contact alone.
That is where kazuma okamoto comes in. In his first 23 games with the Jays, his 33 percent strikeout rate led the team, a figure that fit the broader challenge of adjusting to a new league and new pitchers. Over Toronto’s recent six-game homestand, though, Okamoto’s strikeout rate fell below 25 percent, one sign that his swing choices were starting to settle in as the club worked through the early part of the season.
Schneider framed the issue as one of intent as much as execution. “We know that a lot of these guys make contact,” he said. “So are you just making contact, or are you making quality contact? Are you in a hurry to make contact?” Toronto’s two extra-base hits against Boston were homers by Brandon Valenzuela and Ernie Clement, and the rest of the offense kept pressure on the Red Sox without needing a big power night.
The numbers and the messages line up with where Toronto has said its offense has been headed. A year ago, the coaching staff and front office held a meeting that helped shift the 2025 club’s fortunes, and every two weeks the Jays now hold a state of the squad breakdown. Last year the team improved on the basepaths, going from one of baseball’s worst clubs on the bases to above average in taking extra bases. This season’s version looks different, with injuries and players adjusting to new situations part of the reason some of the offense has lagged even as contact has remained strong.
Nathan Lukes is also dealing with vertigo, another reminder that Toronto’s lineup has not been operating at full strength. The Jays have enough contact to stay afloat, but Wednesday’s meeting and the 8-1 win both pointed to the same question: whether Toronto can turn that contact into harder contact before the season’s early offensive split becomes a bigger problem.