Blue Jays come back for 4-3 win over Dodgers to end six-game losing streak

By Canadian Press on April 8, 2026.

TORONTO —

With his team’s offence mired in a rut, Blue Jays manager John Schneider was hoping a big swing or two would help kickstart his sputtering club.

It turns out some aggressive baserunning would do the trick.

After going from first to third base in the eighth inning, Davis Schneider scampered home with the go-ahead run to help the Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 on Wednesday to end a six-game losing skid.

Schneider broke for home when Miguel Rojas couldn’t corral Will Smith’s throw to second base after Andres Gimenez swiped the bag.

“I didn’t want to get thrown out at home, I was trying to double-steal and was just seeing it through,” he said. “Luckily they made a mistake.”

Smith’s throw was decent but Rojas couldn’t squeeze the ball as Gimenez made a headfirst slide. The ball bounced past the bag and Schneider scored without a throw.

“I like that we’re taking advantage of that stuff right now, kind of in those margins,” John Schneider said. “So Schneider being heads up, it was an all-around good game for him.”

The team’s slumbering offence showed flashes of its former self in the seventh inning as a pair of runs tied the game. George Springer had an RBI double on a drive that nearly cleared the wall in right field and Daulton Varsho had an RBI single.

For a Toronto team that was outscored 18-3 over the first two games of the three-game series, the timely hitting was most welcome.

“You need a win to just get back to neutral a little bit, shake hands, high five, get the lights on in the clubhouse and enjoy an off day,” John Schneider said.

Toronto starter Dylan Cease allowed one earned run and four hits over five-plus innings. He left the game with the bases loaded and nobody out but reliever Louis Varland limited the Dodgers to one run on a sacrifice fly.

Submariner Tyler Rogers (1-0) got five outs for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman put two runners on before nailing down his second save.

“There’s definitely a lot of fight in this group,” Cease said. “We’re not exactly thrilled with how we’ve started, but nobody’s panicking, everyone’s showing up and just continuing to battle.

“So that’s what you’re looking for really.”

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani gave up an unearned run and four hits over six innings. Jack Dreyer was charged with a blown save and Ben Casparius (0-1) shouldered the loss.

The interleague series was the first matchup between the teams since the Dodgers (9-3) won the seventh game of the World Series here last fall. Both teams will get an off-day Thursday.

The Blue Jays (5-7) will continue their homestand Friday with the opener of a weekend series against the Minnesota Twins.

“It’s such a long season ahead of us,” Davis Schneider said. “Obviously we were not starting the way we wanted to start it with all the injuries and the losses, but there’s (150) games left.

“So there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and hopefully we can use this as a jump-start into a win streak here.”