CHICAGO — Late one night in Houston, during an especially rough late April series in which the Toronto Blue Jays managed only two runs on nine hits in three losses to the Astros, manager John Schneider returned to his hotel room and pulled out a whiteboard.

With him were associate manager DeMarlo Hale, hitting coach David Popkins and assistant Lou Iannotti, “writing down different options we can have for a lineup” and that wasn’t an isolated incident. “There’ve been plenty of nights,” said Schneider, “where we’re grinding at two or three in the morning.”

The Blue Jays continued Monday to leave behind those trying, unproductive days at the plate and the late nights seeking answers for the coaching staff, as homers from Joey Loperfido, Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger led the way in an 8-4 thumping of the Chicago White Sox.

Jose Berrios kept a season-best ninth straight win under his thumb with six innings of two-hit, one-run ball, while some any-way-you-can offence in the fourth — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked, stole second and scored on Bo Bichette’s RBI single — erased an early 1-0 hole before the damage came.

The offence also unfolded just as envisioned when the Blue Jays shuffled their lineup — triggered by Bichette missing last week’s series against the Yankees due to a knee issue.

Lukes, batting leadoff for the third time this season, did a little bit of everything, walking in the third, following up Loperfido’s homer in the fifth with one of his own and then laying down a safety squeeze to plate Ernie Clement and cap a five-run sixth.

Bichette, batting fourth for the third time since returning from the knee tweak, also doubled ahead of Barger’s two-run shot in the sixth after flexing the RBI skills that Schneider praised earlier in the day.

Loperfido, who jumped into the fray with a key RBI single in Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels, added a two-run single in the sixth out of the nine-hole, as the Blue Jays continue to catalyze their offence with bottom-third lineup contributions.

“The trust that we have in each other, it doesn’t matter who’s hitting in front of me or in front of the other guys,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “We trust each other.”

All the runs came in handy when Robinson Pina, brought in for late mop-up duty, gave up a two-run single to Mike Tauchman in the seventh and an RBI single to Lenyn Sosa in the eighth, eating into an 8-1 lead.

But Nick Sandlin cleaned up his mess and the Blue Jays moved to 53-38, tying them with the 1985 and 1992 teams for most wins before the all-star break in franchise history, with their latest lineup iteration driving the bus.

“You’re always trying to build a lineup to beat the starter and from that, have flexibility with the bullpen matchups,” Schneider said of the set-up. “When you think about driving in runs, you’re thinking about home runs, doubles, things like that. It doesn’t have to be that way. If guys at the bottom are getting on, a situation may call for contact, that’s kind of where Nate comes in. Situation may call for moving a guy over. He can do that, too. And then you have some slug behind it. Trying to just watch what’s going on and react accordingly, knowing that we have some flexibility to do it.”

Adjusting how lineups were constructed, and how pinch-hitters were used, were among the several areas the Blue Jays decided to rethink as they “reflected on a bad year last year” and “looked at things you could do better.”

“I think we’ve done a good job of doing that and talking to the guys about why,” Schneider continued. “You can sit there ’til you’re blue in the face and say, hey, I think this is what’s best and if you’re not winning, it’s hard to really drive that home. All the conversations now, I think everyone understands, whether it’s superstar or role player, what they’re good at and they want to just fit in where they can.”

Early in the season, Bichette in the leadoff spot “felt right” and while he did well there, Schneider also liked his “unique ability to put the ball in play against tough pitching” in combination with “his mindset with runners in scoring position … that he is going to get the job done.”

The emergences of Lukes and Ernie Clement, a lead-off option against lefty starters, gave the Blue Jays an alternative atop the lineup, while George Springer’s renaissance — he was named AL player of the week Monday after five homers and 13 RBIs during a 7-0 homestand — forced him up into the two-spot. With Guerrero wanting — and getting — back to his comfort spot in the three-hole, that opened clean-up for Bichette.

“That’s what I pride myself on,” he said of the ability to be effective with runners in scoring position. “It’s not going to be pretty all the time and most of the time it doesn’t feel great because you’re thinking about things too much or whatever, but I pride myself on the ability to tune all that out when there’s a big spot or an opportunity to drive a run in. I’ve done well at that so I hope I can continue to.”

As for moving from leadoff to cleanup, he said simply that “I’m willing to do whatever for this team that’s needed.”

That mindset is no small part of pulling everything together, with Springer saying that “once guys really got going and got the flow of the year, everything slowly started to fall into place from an identity standpoint.”

“Pop, Lou and Hunter (Mense) have always preached, who do you want to be as an offence?” He continued. “Guys have really taken it to heart to try and do something different every night to help you win. You don’t have to be a one-dimensional team. You can do everything to try to win every night, whether that’s a bunt, walk, slug obviously is fun, everyone loves homers, but being a multi-dimensional team, in all facets of the game. 

“Be pesky. Find a way. Be gritty. Play through whatever it is you’re going through,” Springer added. “Do all the things that don’t show up in a box score and then have faith that the big blow will be delivered. And when you get a team that’s kind of embodied just go play for each other, you naturally get that kind of gritty, hard-nosed style of game that I think our team plays.”

The style of game played by the type complementary lineup Schneider and his coaching staff were trying to piece together on a whiteboard only a couple of months ago.