TORONTO -- Saturday afternoon was a staring contest, and while the Blue Jays squinted, strained and felt tears welling in the corners of their eyes, they never blinked.

Toronto’s 5-2 win over Atlanta at Rogers Centre felt like a slice of October on a May afternoon, with two powerhouses playing the matchups in a game of stars versus stars. It was a fight in a phone booth with little room for error, the exact type of game that the Blue Jays will need to win to get where they want to go.

“Atlanta is good and [it is] going to continue to be good,” said manager John Schneider, “but I think we’re at the point now where measuring sticks are out the window. We come into a series expecting to win.”

The Blue Jays did many small things right on Saturday, from Kevin Kiermaier’s hustle on the bases in a 3-for-4 day to George Springer’s fantastic diving catch in right field. But the crescendo came in the seventh.

In the top half, Toronto begged the Braves to win. A bounced throw from Bo Bichette allowed leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. to reach base, and soon enough, Atlanta had the bases loaded with no outs in a tied game. The Blue Jays brought the infield in, though, and Yimi García forced a groundout to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that came home, setting up Erik Swanson for the final two outs to escape unscathed. Somehow, the home team danced its way to the unlikeliest outcome.

“I can’t overstate how good [Swanson] has been and how important he is,” Schneider said, adding that Swanson has been “invaluable” both on and off the field.

In the bottom of the seventh, Bichette bounced back. After Kiermaier and Springer reached, then pulled off the perfect double steal, Bichette shot a line drive through the left side to give the Blue Jays the lead. Toronto started the inning imperfectly, but in the span of 10 minutes, it did a half-dozen perfect different things -- not to just limit the damage, but to do some of their own.

“That’s the kind of stuff that lets you win championships,” said José Berríos, who did his job by holding Atlanta to two runs over 5 2/3 innings. “When we play like that, we have to maximize those plays. Every pitch counted. Whether it’s a ground ball or a fly ball, we have to make an out. That’s how you win ball games.”

That double steal accounted for two of the five swiped bags the Blue Jays had on Saturday, and when you factor in a strong performance from the bullpen -- led by a brilliant Swanson -- you see how the pieces are starting to come back together for this team’s identity. It was visible during April’s burst of optimism, but it faded a bit as the Blue Jays played a looser, more on-the-fly brand of baseball in recent weeks.

“This is fun. I think we can still out-homer people,” Bichette said with a smirk, “but it’s fun. We play hard and we’re ready to perform. It’s fun to be around.”

This style is what makes the Blue Jays dangerous, expanding their strengths in a way that covers for their inevitable weaknesses. Stretches like these, when Toronto is playing its best baseball, also show it’s time for a mental shift. And it’s one the Blue Jays have already made themselves.

This stretch of 17 games in 17 days -- opening with the Braves, Yankees, Orioles and Rays -- is billed as a “test.” That’s how it’s been for years. But aren’t the Blue Jays a test in their own right? When they are playing this exact style of baseball, they are the challenge, the litmus test, the measuring stick and any other overused phrase you can throw at them.

The Blue Jays are, as a chemistry teacher with a secret once said, the ones who knock.

“Other teams are saying that it’s going to be a tough series when they come in here, too,” Schneider said. “It’s about understanding that and getting back to what we’re good at, which is having good at-bats, getting good starting pitching and making good defensive plays.”

Atlanta’s stacked lineup and impressive pitching will challenge anyone, but the reality of the AL East makes the 11 games that follow this series incredibly important. Fewer games within the division means fewer opportunities to create separation, and the AL East seems to be getting stronger by the day.

When the Blue Jays play like themselves, though, they get to control their own destiny.