Home cooking has served Blue Jays well in club's climb atop AL East

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As the expression goes, home is where the heart is. But at the heart of the Blue Jays’ ascension to the top of the AL East has been their record at home.

With the visiting Los Angeles Angels in town to complete Toronto’s current seven-game homestand, the team won’t be back at the Rogers Centre until after the all-star break.

When they do reconvene following baseball’s mid-summer classic, the Jays will play host to the San Francisco Giants followed by a return visit from the New York Yankees, who were swept out of town Thursday with all four games played against a playoff-like backdrop.

Only the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers have better home records than the Blue Jays’ 29-16 mark and .617 winning percentage.

The Jays, meanwhile, are 20-22 away from the Rogers Centre. Considering only three teams in the American League are above .500 on the road, that’s nothing to be distraught over. But their .477 road winning percentage heading into Friday night’s games ranks the Jays right in the middle of the pack — seventh among 15 American League teams. And that must improve for this team to be considered a legitimate post-season contender.

Still, the way the team has played at home and the way fans have supported the club have evoked memories of 2016, which coincidentally was the most recent time the Blue Jays won a post-season series.

Entering this weekend’s series against the Angels, the Jays have averaged a home crowd attendance of 30,449, which is 12th-best in baseball.

Fan support promises to strengthen, provided the Blue Jays continue their winning and entertaining ways.

Looking into the future, the Jays will wrap up the season with a six-game homestand against Boston and Tampa.

But plenty of games remain to be played in the interim and several moves are likely to be engineered as baseball’s July 31 trade deadline approaches.

Pitching is one area that could use a jolt.

With Max Scherzer scheduled to make the start Saturday, it will be his third outing in Toronto and fourth overall with the Blue Jays as the veteran right-hander and certain Hall of Famer continues to manage a troublesome thumb.

In his most recent outing, Scherzer struck out seven, while allowing two runs in fiv e innings Monday against the Bronx Bombers.

He was lifted after just 71 pitches and following the game, the Jays said Scherzer was dealing with fatigue in his thumb.

Bowden Francis remains on the injured list, while Alek Manoah’s road back from elbow surgery will involve throwing an additional live bullpen session before getting into rehab games. Barring any setback, Manoah appears to be closing in on real action.

Offensively, the Jays have used home cooking to feast on their opposition as evidenced by the sweep of the Yankees when multi-homer games were recorded by George Springer (twice) and Davis Schneider.

Runs have been produced in abundance at home and yet the Jays continue to be without Anthony Santander, the team’s big off-season acquisition who was placed on the 10-day injured list on May 30, then transfered to the 60-day IL i a clerical move on Friday.

Santander, 30, signed a five-year,  $92.5-million US deal with the Jays after setting career highs in homers (44) and RBI (102) last season with the Orioles. But in 50 games with the Jays, Santander  struggled at the plate.

And yet the Blue Jays keep winning, especially at home.

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