Blue Jays’ rise to first, broken down by numbers
The Toronto Blue Jays have turned their season around with a scorching-hot stretch.
On May 28, the Blue Jays were under .500 and trailed the New York Yankees by eight games for first in the American League East. A little more than a month later, Toronto topped the division with a three-game lead over the Yankees heading into Monday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at how the Blue Jays clawed their way to first place.
(All stats before Monday’s games)
26-10 — Toronto’s record since May 28. The Blue Jays improved from 27-28 to 52-38 with series wins against the Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels and the Yankees. Toronto swept New York in a four-game home set for the first time in franchise history last week before rattling off three victories against the Angels, pushing its winning streak to eight.
7 — The Blue Jays have swept seven series through 90 games this year, including four since May 28. Toronto only had five sweeps all of last season.
21 — George Springer is Toronto’s MVP so far this season, turning back the clock after a poor 2024 showing. In the last 15 days, he has led MLB with 21 RBIs — 11 of which came against the Yankees. The 35-year-old Springer is also tied for first in home runs (six) and on-base percentage (.500) during that stretch.
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.301 — Alejandro Kirk has bounced back from a couple of down years and ranks second among catchers in batting average. He’s one of several players who stepped up to power the Blue Jays into first. Third baseman Addison Barger has also been a key contributor since joining from Triple-A Buffalo in mid-April. And in Sunday’s 3-2 victory over the Angels, Joey Loperfido batted in a key run while reliever Ryan Burr earned a win — both in their season debuts.
40 — The Blue Jays are getting it done without some top players. Anthony Santander had missed 40 games this season after signing a five-year, US$92.5-million deal last off-season. He hasn’t played since May 29 due to left shoulder inflammation. Toronto has also gone through most of the season without fellow big addition Max Scherzer. The three-time Cy Young winner, who’s 40, has pitched in only four outings this year.
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52 — Toronto was one victory away from tying the franchise record for wins before the All-Star Game. The Blue Jays had 53 wins before the break in 1985 and 1992, the year they won their first of back-to-back World Series titles. Toronto had six games remaining against the White Sox and Athletics — two American League bottom-dwellers — before the July 15 MLB showcase in Atlanta.
12 — Despite topping the AL East, the Blue Jays only had a plus-12 run-differential, ranking fourth in the division. New York, meanwhile, was plus-95. Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay struck a chord with Blue Jays fans when he noted the lopsided differentials and said Toronto was “not a first-place team” after the Blue Jays tied New York atop the division last week.
14 — Of the 26 wins during their hot streak, the Blue Jays won 14 by one or two runs.
20 — One explanation for Toronto’s success in close games: playing situational baseball. The Blue Jays have bought into small ball and manufacturing runs with 20 sacrifice bunts, which ties Kansas City for the major-league lead. Ernie Clement scored Myles Straw, with help from a throwing error, with a walk-off bunt in the 10th inning of Friday’s 4-3 win over the Angels. Toronto had only 14 sac bunts last season, and only five teams totalled 20 or more.
605 — Blue Jays batters have also shown discipline at the plate with just 605 strikeouts, fewest in the majors. Toronto’s lineup is consistently swinging for contact with a majors-leading 2,489 batted balls.
2016 — This is the furthest into the season Toronto has held first place in the AL East since 2016, when the Blue Jays led the division in early September.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
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The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
Provided
Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
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By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
Provided
Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
ARC World may be a celebration of Asian culture, but organizer Clement Chu hopes that people from all backgrounds come and enjoy the one-day festival in downtown Toronto.
Food, shops, music and speakers will all be featured at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Kerr Hall on Saturday, with a celebrity basketball game including actor Simu Liu and former Toronto Raptors star Jeremy Lin the day’s finale. Chu said that there will be something for everyone, whether they have ties to Asia or not.
“The stories that some of these people are telling here, it’s not just necessarily about them being Asian but it’s a story of resilience,” he said in a recent phone interview. “These are stories that apply way beyond, the Asian community so we hope people get that out of it.
“We hope people come enjoy the things that come from our culture, whether it’s food or art or entertainment. More than anything else, we want to get young people out and volunteering and making contributions back to the community, because we feel a lot of that was lost during COVID.”
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Originally named the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian Roots Collective was founded 30 years ago by Chu and his friends to create a safe space to play basketball. Chu said that over time the organization’s mission has broadened to include people with connections to all of Asia and to encompass other “universal languages” that, like basketball, can bring people together even if there are other linguistic or cultural barriers.
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“We want to showcase all these things that are excellent, that are happening,” said Chu. “So we decided to change the direction of the organization a little bit, because we’re no longer just Chinese, we’re no longer just youth oriented programs, and we’re sure as heck not just athletics.
“We wanted to have a calling card that was more representative of what we’re doing. This year is the first year we’re launching ARC World, which is this convention where we’re celebrating all things Asian.”
The acronym ARC still reflects those roots in basketball, however.
“Because we come from basketball, (the name) is like the three-point arc, your shot arc, but we’re trying to tell a story now so this is a narrative arc,” said Chu. “That was the inspiration behind the name of the organization.”
ARC has come a long way since it was founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors started playing in Toronto. Back then, Chu and other leaders within the organization had to rent basketball courts at local high schools. Now they have their own athletic centre in Markham, Ont.
“We used to make that joke about, ‘oh, you know, one day, as opposed to renting schools, we’d love to have the keys to gym,’ because that’s the dream of every kid, to have the keys to gym so you could shoot around,” he said. “It’s just funny because, like, fast forward, 30 years later, through some of these initiatives, we were able to raise enough money to build our own mini-community centre with a basketball hoop and stuff, but so now we do have the keys to the gym which is pretty, pretty cool.
“The only downside is, I’m so old now that I can’t really play anymore, but the kids now have a place to run around, we have video games there, art, we teach coding, it’s gone far beyond just basketball.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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