Springer, short porch and strikeouts

Three things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 9-2 win over the Yankees in The Bronx on Thursday:

The bats are back

George Springer led off the game with a double, the first of his five hits on the night, and while he didn’t score in the first, he did in a five-run second inning that was capped by a Yankee Stadium Special, a three-run home run to right field by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Guerrero’s 26th homer of the season travelled only 362 feet. Every other ballpark in the majors would have kept it in, but the Jays have been burned by that short porch so many times over the years that they happily took it. Alejandro Kirk added an RBI double and sacrifice fly and Teoscar Hernandez blasted a two-run double, giving the Jays three players with multiple RBIs in the same game for the first time since Aug. 4. Guerrero hit a threerun homer that day, too.

Good José

José Berríos had his good stuff working on Thursday, as evidenced by his three strikeouts over the first two innings. Berríos has had a roller-coaster of a season — very good when good but awful when not — and the strikeouts are the tell. He had nine in 6 2⁄3 innings Thursday.

The right-hander has had seven starts this season in which he has struck out one or fewer batters. In those starts, his ERA is 17.86. In his other 17 starts this season, his ERA is 2.86. Not coincidentally, the Jays are 17-7 when Berríos starts.

Team effort

The Jays got contributions from up and down the order in the big win as every starter reached base at least once via hit or walk. Bo Bichette was the last to join the party with a ninth-inning single. Santiago Espinal and Whit Merrifield were the only Jays to go hitless on the night, but both walked and scored a run. Springer, Kirk and Hernandez had multi-hit games.