TORONTO — On the road trip that just ended, the Toronto Blue Jays played six games and scored six runs. 

A late-night return from Texas had many players and staff settling into bed around 5:00 a.m., leaving them just enough time to grab a few hours of sleep, drink a coffee or two and return to the ballpark for more. 

Now to be fair, the Blue Jays sign up for this. It’s part of life at the highest level of professional baseball, so as manager John Schneider says, you’ve got to grind through it and find a way to “embrace the (crap).” 

Facing a spiralling Athletics team at Rogers Centre Thursday, the Blue Jays did just that, overcoming any lingering fatigue and putting the offensive woes of the road trip behind them with a convincing 12-0 win in which four different players homered and Jose Berrios put together one of his strongest starts of the season.

Rarely do teams get the chance to play opponents who are struggling as badly as the Athletics, who arrived in Toronto having lost 13 of their last 14 games. With a 6.03 bullpen ERA, challenges controlling the running game and an offence that’s gone cold, the A’s have their share of issues.

But to the Blue Jays’ credit, they took advantage of the Athletics’ weaknesses on their way back to .500 at 28-28. Facing a left-handed starter for the first time since May 7, the Blue Jays had no trouble hitting Jacob Lopez, who was charged with seven of the eight runs Toronto scored in the second.

And while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered in that inning, it was Ernie Clement who led the second-inning rally with a three-run homer that opened the scoring and a two-run double later that same inning.

Homers from Bo Bichette and George Springer added to the Blue Jays’ lead in the third, by which point it was already clear they were headed for a win. Just as importantly, Bichette’s tight lower back has been improving after it kept him out of the starting lineup Wednesday evening in Texas.

Thanks in part to treatment from team trainers, Bichette has now homered in consecutive games for the first time this season while increasing his May home run total to six. On the season, the 27-year-old now has a .277 batting average for a 114 wRC+, numbers that fall short of his career norms but are nonetheless well above league average.

Meanwhile, Berrios quietly pitched a great game, striking out nine Athletics over the course of six innings of work. He allowed just two hits and two walks while lowering his season ERA to 3.86 on a day he challenged the visiting lineup with a steady dose of fastballs.

After Berrios exited, Mason Fluharty pitched the seventh and Jose Urena covered the eighth and ninth to keep the team’s highest leverage relievers fresh for Friday and beyond.

With three more chances against the Athletics this weekend, the Blue Jays must continue to take advantage. Getting to the bullpen early on the first night of a four-game series should help the Blue Jays force the visitors into some uncomfortable matchups later in the weekend, when the score won’t be so uneven.

At that point, it’ll be on the Blue Jays to execute against a team that’s struggling and push themselves above .500 for good. With only two months remaining before the July 31 trade deadline, this is the best possible time for the Blue Jays to show the front office they’re worthy of further reinforcements.

Before the game, Schneider noted that the trade deadline is ‘go or no’ time — and everyone in uniform wants the answer to be ‘go.’ One lopsided win later, the Blue Jays are a little closer to making that their reality.