Encouraging signs emerge as Blue Jays avoid being swept by Braves

The Blue Jays return home to face the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

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Published Jun 04, 2026  •  Last updated 17 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Chad Dallas of the Toronto Blue Jays pitches during the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on June 4, 2026 in Atlanta. Photo by Todd Kirkland /Getty Images

For the first time since his regrettable and yet memorable meltdown in Baltimore, Blue Jays pitcher Jeff Hoffman was back on the mound.

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The hard-throwing righty reliever has been the whipping boy for the club’s disgruntled fanbase, a large group that will never make Hoffman forget his inability to save Game 7 in last fall’s World Series.

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One pitch was all it took for the narrative surrounding Hoffman to completely change.

One brutal inning in Baltimore, when the Orioles won after he entered the ninth with a four-run lead, was viewed as the last straw, with many pining for Hoffman to be DFAed.

When used to start the seventh inning, Hoffman has shown to be effective.

Witness his appearance on Thursday in Atlanta in the series finale as the Jays tried to avoid getting swept at the hands of baseball’s best team.

Hoffman was perfect when facing the bottom of the Braves’ order, perhaps providing the ideal template in how best to use Hoffman moving forward.

Braydon Fisher started the eighth and gave up a one-out home run to make it a one-run game.

After recording the second out, Fisher was replaced by Louis Varland, who was looking to record a four-out save.

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Having lost four in a row, a slide that started in that infamous 6-5 walk-off loss to the Orioles, Varland was tasked with recording the biggest four outs of the season.

Two pitches were required to record the final out in the eighth.

The Blue Jays scored four add-on runs in the top of the ninth, sparked by Myles Straw’s third hit on the night as the Jays’ offence exploded for 16 hits overall.

The main beneficiary was Varland, whose margin for error in the ninth was expanded.

Varland showed no mercy in wrapping up the Jays’ 7-2 win, which wrapped up a 3-4 road trip. That’s not good, for obvious reasons, but the win Thursday was a step in the right direction.

The following are three takeaways on a night Vladimir Guerrero Jr. recorded his 19th multi-hit game of the season, but he also had a bad sequence on the bases.

NOT FOR SALE

Earlier this season, the Blue Jays faced one of MLB’s elite pitchers in Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Chris Sale, the Braves’ starting pitcher Thursday, is also among the top arms in the business.

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Like Skenes, the Jays would get to Sale, who faced plenty of traffic.

Kazuma Okamoto and Charles McAdoo, two MLB rookies, looked overmatched in their first at-bats against Sale, but each would earn a measure of redemption.

Overall, the Jays made things stressful for Sale, whose 108-pitch outing and the 10 hits yielded were both season highs.

FLUHARTY OPENS EYES

Two of the Jays’ least heralded arms are Mason Fluharty and Fisher, relievers who have been asked to serve as openers amid a starting rotation that has been bitten by the injury bug.

Another bullpen day looms this weekend, but help is on the horizon.

Dylan Cease (hamstring) pitched four innings in Buffalo Thursday night, a 75-pitch rehab outing that featured five earned runs surrendered, but no one gets overly concerned at the results when all that matters is the process.

Fluharty left a runner at third with one out in the second inning when the Jays summoned Chad Dallas from the bullpen, marking the right-hander’s MLB debut.

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He was making the most of the moment, knowing the Jays had acquired RHP Simeon Woods Richardson the day before in a trade with Minnesota.

Prior to Thursday’s first pitch, Jays manager John Schneider informed the assembled media the club will make a move to add SWR to the roster Friday.

Where that leaves Dallas remains up in the air, but at least he recorded his first strikeout in the show to end the second inning, a moment to cherish as his personal cheering section at Truist Park basked in the moment.

Dallas left everything out on the mound in giving the Jays 3.2 innings.

INFIELD OF DREAMS

The Jays defied the odds by recording two separate infield hits through the opening three innings and yet the runner at second could not advance to third.

Credit the visitors for creating traffic knowing Sale was on the mound.

Credit the visitors for touching Sale for RBI singles as a 3-0 lead would be forged.

Only once during his previous 11 starts has Sale given up three runs.

A fielder’s choice double play to end the third would see Nathan Lukes get thrown out at the plate.

A nifty behind-the-back play by Dallas produced the final out in the home half of the third as the Braves would score one run.

Dallas retired the side in order in the fourth inning.

Okamoto recorded his second infield on the night when he led off the seventh.

UP NEXT

The Baltimore Orioles are in town for a weekend series after playing host to the Jays last week when the teams earned a four-game split; the AL East rivals enter the weekend with identical 30-33 records.

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