Ryan Goins of the Toronto Blue Jays throws out a baserunner in the first inning during MLB game action against the New York Mets on June 17, 2015 at Rogers Centre in Toronto.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
That is the trouble with a winning streak. It comes to an end. Normally with a loud thud, a reminder of just how precarious life is in the day-to-day, 162-game meat grinder that is major league baseball.
One day the Toronto Blue Jays are flying high, riding the exhilarating wave of a franchise-record-tying 11 games without a loss, charging up the American League East standing like nobody's business.
The next day they run into the New York Mets, who proceed to swipe two in a row, both one-run affairs, one of them going into extra innings.
And suddenly, the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately crowd begins to chatter, wondering what has gone amiss with the local nine.
Although it was only a mini-slide, Toronto manager John Gibbons knew that as long as it lasted, all the good fostered by the win streak would unwind faster than a Bay Street businessman on a three-martini lunch.
"We need to put an end to it," Gibbons intoned before Wednesday night's game at Rogers Centre, where Toronto resumed hostilities against the Mets after losses in New York on Monday and Tuesday.
"That's the one nice thing about a streak," Gibbons added. "When it ends, you still want to keep building on it. Always easier said than done, though."
It may not have been easy from the outset, but the Blue Jays were able to prevail with an 8-0 interleague victory over the Mets before a crowd of 28,906.
It was a tight game up until the bottom of the eighth, with the Blue Jays nursing a 3-0 lead.
The offence then added five more runs, highlighted by a three-run homer by Danny Valencia, to turn it into a laugher.
The game also featured a return to form by pitcher Drew Hutchison and some timely hitting from Kevin Pillar.
The centre fielder drove in two runs, and 3-for-4, including his fifth home run of the year in the seventh.
Heading into Wednesday's game, most of the focus was on Hutchison and how he would rebound from his previous shaky outing, Friday in Boston. At Fenway Park, Hutchison was rattled for eight runs on nine hits over 21/3 innings, his quickest departure (not including injury) in his career. The only saving grace was that the Blue Jays, largely on the strength of a monstrous nine-run seventh, charged back from an 8-1 disadvantage to win 13-10.
Hutchison appears to have recovered nicely, as has been his habit this year of sliding in and out of rough and smooth patches.
Hutchison departed Wednesday's game with two out in the sixth and his team holding a 1-0 lead after holding the Mets to no runs off four hits and five strikeouts.
Gibbons said he is not concerned by Hutchison's inconsistencies, as people tend to forget he is a young athlete in just his fourth season in the majors.
"The feeling around here, he's a seasoned veteran," Gibbons said. "He's not. He's 24 years old and he hasn't been around that long. So he's going through what a lot of young guys do. He's just been better than most of them."
The Blue Jays shot in front 1-0 in the second inning after New York starter Jon Niese issued a couple of walks to Chris Colabello and Valencia. Colabello scored the game's first run on a single by Pillar.
The score stayed that way until the sixth, when Colabello cashed Josh Donaldson, who doubled leading off.
Before the game, Gibbons related some positive news on the status of second baseman Devon Travis, out since May 17 with a sore left shoulder.
Travis has now completed three games of a rehab assignment in Double A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, going 1-for-4 in a loss to Erie on Wednesday.
And although his numbers are rather underwhelming – 1-for-11 with two strikeouts – Gibbons said the important thing is that the rookie second baseman is playing pain free.
Travis will now head to Triple A to play the next couple of days with the Buffalo Bisons for some additional seasoning. His return to the Blue Jays roster appears imminent.
"He's feeling good," Gibbons said about Travis, who was hitting .271 with 26 runs batted in 36 games before being stricken by the shoulder injury. "Now he just has to get his swing going a little bit. But he hasn't felt anything [pain] after the game, or during the game.
"I'd guess, maybe, some time this weekend [for his return], definitely by the beginning of next week, I would think."