TORONTO – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. threw his hands up in the air after receiving Jeff Hoffman’s relay to first for the final out of a streak-busting win, took off his hat, pumped his arms to the heavens and joined the Toronto Blue Jays for handshakes.

A night earlier, at the end of a 4-1 setback to the Los Angeles Dodgers that was his team’s sixth straight loss, the superstar first baseman sat in the dugout for an extended period, staring at the field.

The contrast between the two moments was telling.

“Giving my thanks to God,” Guerrero said of holding his arms up to the sky. “It was a tough week for us. We won, we have a day off and we come in fresh for Friday, that's what it is. (Tuesday) I spent probably 15 minutes in the dugout thinking how we can beat those guys and (Wednesday) we did.”

Wednesday’s win wasn’t all pretty, with another error leading to a run, two more 0-fers with the bases loaded, leaving them an unfathomable 1-for-19 this season with three on, and a 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position that actually nudged their average up to .215 (23-for-107). But pressure on the bases in the eighth inning by Davis Schneider, who went first-to-third on an Andres Gimenez bouncer up the middle, and Gimenez, who stole second leading to a Will Smith throwing error that scored the decisive run, turned the tide.

The Blue Jays maintained that aggressiveness on the bases despite a Guerrero mistake after his leadoff double in the sixth, as he broke to third on a Jesus Sanchez grounder right in front of him, only for Miguel Rojas to range right and throw to third for a frustrating out.

“That was a tough one because (Rojas) was playing behind me,” said Guerrero. “Sanchie hit it hard. I thought it was going to be a base hit. He did a good job. I talked with (first base coach Mark Budzinkski) and next time it's better to go back and then go to third. We learn from that I think it's not going to happen again.”

There have been plenty of lessons early for Guerrero and the rest of the Blue Jays.

While he was sitting in the dugout Tuesday night, Guerrero said he was thinking how “everybody in here has to get better, especially myself.” His groundout to third with two on in the sixth Tuesday left him “mad with myself” and wanting to “take that back.” 

“You have to think sometimes, how you get better, how you do something to help the team win,” he said. “To me, better than being mad, breaking a bat, breaking something, I just relax (in the dugout post-game), see the fear and try to come through myself.”

Guerrero reached base three times in four trips Wednesday, including a walk in the seventh after George Springer’s RBI double and Daulton Varsho’s run-scoring single tied the game 3-3. He acknowledged that “sometimes we want to be the guy” but stayed disciplined in that spot, refusing to chase as Blake Treinen tried to get him to expand.

The plate appearance was an example of the “take better at-bats” approach he feels will get him hot. “Believe in myself in the box and try to get my pitch. Try to not chase. … It's 12 games in and we have 150 to go. It's going to be good.”

Jeff Hoffman closed out Wednesday’s win against the gauntlet atop the Dodgers lineup, earning a save that offered some validation for a weird start in which the underlying numbers haven’t matched the results.

Through seven appearances, he’s struck out an absurd 15 of 31 batters faced, yet he’s allowed runs in three of those outings, although only two of the four have been earned. Against the Dodgers, he struck out Shohei Ohtani to open the frame, gave up a Kyle Tucker single and Will Smith walk, rallied to strike out Freddie Freeman and then induced a roller to the mound from Max Muncy for the final out. 

“Especially with my position, nobody really cares what the process is, because when something goes wrong, you just lose,” said Hoffman, “it's just nice to see what it's supposed to look like. So many weird things have happened over the first week and it's nice to finally see one all the way through and end with us winning the game.”

One priority for Hoffman this season is to be more unpredictable in his pitch sequencing, particularly against a team like the Dodgers that is good with usage tendencies. The pivotal Freeman at-bat was a great example, as he threw two splitters to start and then went with three straight fastballs to get a chase swing, rather than vice-versa.

“I was heavy on the split (Tuesday) night and I felt like that was probably a pitch that if I threw it early in the outing (Wednesday), it was a good pitch they were going to be looking for,” said Hoffman. “So, once we had the spots and the counts to be able to throw the fastball with a little bit more room for error, we could climb the zone and see how high they'll go. When you've been heavy with the splitter and it's been a good pitch and it is getting people out, that's in their heads, so we're just going to be able to sneak a few more fastballs by them.”

Alejandro Kirk’s fractured left thumb and the subsequent surgery that will sideline him for six weeks has meant rookie catcher Brandon Valenzuela is working through “a really high learning curve” as he acclimates to the majors.

It’s a challenge the 25-year-old is embracing as he’s “learning from the pitching staff, learning the guys, learning from Kirk, (Tyler) Heineman, Drew (Butera, the catching coach), amazing dudes to have in my corner, having their input into all of my pre-game stuff, my scouting report for the games, my game reviews, all of that.”

Valenzuela has appeared in four games so far and came into Wednesday’s game in the eighth inning as a defensive replacement after Myles Straw ran for Heineman in the seventh. That left him handling two high-leverage innings behind the plate in the 4-3 win.

The Blue Jays’ game-planning process at the big-league level is similar to that in the minors, he said, but is more involved as at triple-A Buffalo, “it was just me and the pitching coach going through the scouting reports. Here it's catching coach, pitching coach, starting pitcher, me, Heinie, so it's not me by myself. I get more help.”

During spring training, Valenzuela played in 11 games, which helped him build familiarity with the pitching staff, but one difference is “on the field it's more competitive,” he said. “The games in spring training for me mattered because I needed to make a name for myself. During the season, it's about the team, it's no longer just me, there's the whole city. So there's a lot more competitiveness from us and the other teams.”

Nonetheless, “playing feels the same,” he added. “I ain't gonna lie, I was a little nervous for my first game, but once I got my first inning out of the way, it was like, same game I played my whole life. I felt prepared.”

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