Despite inconsistencies, standings and booming offence say Blue Jays are a playoff team

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Bo Bichette is not much into verbosity, never serving up a 50-word answer to a query when 10 will do and those responses often are delivered in a volume not much above a whisper.

So, when asked if that impressive and dominant 6-1 homestand his Blue Jays had just finished on Thursday meant a potential end to the topsy-turvy waves the team has endured through 62 games, Bo wasn’t biting.

“I’m sure there will be more,” Bichette said.

Give credit to the Blue Jays shortstop — and suddenly potent home-run hitter with all of his eight so far this season coming in the past five weeks — he tends to speak the truth.

The lows have been pretty gruesome for the Jays, after all, and the highs not yet sustainable. But with this recent run, could the Jays have arrived at a point where at best they can contain the most recent form and at worst avoid the wild swings and volatility?

It’s possible, even with a downer dose of Bichette caution.

By moving to 33-29, the Jays have reached a season-high four games above .500 and at least feel that there is momentum.

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At 8-2, they completed their best 10-game stretch of the season, marked by a four-game sweep of the embarrassingly poor Athletics and taking two of three from the solidly stout Phillies. The 6-1 homestand was also their most prolific Rogers Centre stretch.

And, don’t look now, but the Jays woke up Friday in Minnesota — where a nine-game trip was scheduled to begin that evening — with a share of the American League’s third wild-card spot.

For manager John Schneider, the consistency with which his team has suddenly started pounding out runs on the regular has offered up a reprieve in more ways than one.

“I can sit here a month ago and say, ‘Hey, we’re right there. I think when you (start scoring) it just validates how you feel,” Schneider said following Thursday’s 9-1 win over the Phils. “And it takes a little pressure off of everybody.”

The key has been obvious: Runs, runs and more runs. Sure, the Jays scored a gritty and dramatic 2-1 win on Wednesday, but the eight-run outburst through two innings on Thursday showed they can let loose against a good team. It’s literally all about offence and the power of the low-hanging fruit (GM Ross Atkins’ now infamous term for home runs).

“I think the mindset hasn’t really changed, to be honest with you,” Schneider said. “When you’re performing, you’re scoring, it kind of just leads into everything. It takes pressure off the pitchers, it allows them to get deeper in the games. And I think that performance really justifies how we and the guys feel about our team.”

Right now they’re feeling pretty good. The three-game sweep at the hand of the Rays in Tampa, while only two weeks ago, is at least starting to feel like a distant memory.

That hardly means that all is solved, however. The nine-game trip that begins Friday in the Twin Cities features opponents (the Twins, St. Louis Cardinals and the Phillies, again) that all currently are residing in post-season spots.

As well, we are once again circling back to the treacherous phase of the rotation with Paxton Schultz getting the start in what will be some sort of a bullpen day for Friday’s opener, followed by Kevin Gausman and Bowden Francis, the latter who continues to struggle and is getting perilously close to pitching his way out of the starting group.

But if the offence continues to produce, suddenly it will feel more like a groove than gloom.

Bichette has been one of the bats central to that recent burst. His two-run shot on Thursday sent the Jays on their way to the latest lopsided win. In his current nine-game hitting streak, Bichette is hitting .333 with runners in scoring position with four homers, two doubles and a triple.

“We’re playing as a collective,” Bichette said, alluding to the regular contributions from the bottom of the order. “We’re picking each other up. Everybody’s competing and playing for each other.”

And on the subject of consistency: “That’s what a baseball season is: Ups and downs. We’ve got more than half a season left.”

With that in mind, the Jays know that with a whopping 100 games remaining, there’s plenty of grinding to come. Winning against the Phillies was noteworthy given, as Thursday’s starter Chris Bassitt noted, “they can easily win the World Series.”

In the end, it was just a three-game series, sure, but it felt bigger.

“I think the offensive belief has been there since Day 1,” Bassitt said. “I think the pitching belief has been there since day one. Now it’s just execute our game plans, and if if it doesn’t work (on a given day), it’s not a huge deal.

“We still have the guys to do the job.”

And for the first sustained period this season, doing it with some consistency.