NEW YORK — Two weeks ago, as his Blue Jays stared down a 13-game crucible against the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, and Yankees again, John Schneider framed what lay ahead as a gift.

"There's still really meaningful baseball and that's fun,” he said. “There's nothing better than that when you're getting into the dog days of August.”

Here on the other side of it, after the Blue Jays fell, 8-3, to the Yankees on Sunday to seal an 8-5 record over that run of play, it turns out the crucible was its own reward. Even more meaningful baseball awaits as the Blue Jays wrestle for positioning with over half of a hyper-competitive — perhaps uncompetitive, depending on your perspective — American League.

Regular season games against the AL’s top three teams — the Red Sox, Rays, and Yankees — are now in the rearview after José Soriano was tagged for five runs at Yankee Stadium while the left-handed relievers in Toronto’s bullpen couldn’t succeed in favourable matchups.

Working without his best stuff or command while facing a lineup featuring seven left-handed hitters, Soriano ran a near-even mix of sinkers, splitters, and curveballs, working in the odd four-seamer along the way. 

He allowed a pair in the second, as the Yankees took advantage of some misplaced fastballs to string hits together, and began the sixth with three consecutive singles — the third a sacrifice bunt attempt Soriano fielded but was forced to swallow — before John Schneider lifted him and brought Braydon Fisher into a near-impossible spot with the bases loaded and none out. 

Yet the right-hander nearly escaped it, striking out Austin Wells looking with an elevated, full-count curveball and getting Jose Caballero to hit a flyball too shallow to score the runner from........

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