TORONTO -- Good pitchers have talent, but the great ones have timing.

José Berríos has spent the first six weeks of the season looking like everything was an inch off, never unraveling entirely but never looking like his true self. That changed in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over the Mariners at Rogers Centre when the Blue Jays needed him most.

With closer Jordan Romano sick and setup man Tim Mayza on the IL, Berríos put the Blue Jays on his back with seven-plus innings of scoreless ball. He didn’t overwhelm the Mariners, striking out just four, but Berríos got back to his roots as one of the game’s most consistent starting pitchers, throwing the right pitches in the right moments.

“That’s the only way you can come back like that, staying [steady],” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “He’s been working really hard. He’s one of the hardest workers I know. It was great to see that outing. He was in control the whole time. That second inning was the whole game.”

Montoyo was referencing a bases-loaded jam that Berríos escaped with a timely double play, setting his team up to take the lead in the bottom half of the second on a George Springer triple that cleared the bases. That double-play ball is the exact pitch Berríos was missing in his previous starts, but finally found.

Even with all of the outliers this Blue Jays team has experienced in 2022, particularly with its struggling lineup, nothing felt less natural than Berríos’ 5.82 ERA entering play Tuesday. He was coming off two ugly outings against the Guardians and Yankees earlier in May, too, allowing 11 runs over 10 innings. What’s made Berríos’ start particularly strange, though, is that he’s never looked downright terrible. Not close.

Instead of losing the zone entirely or giving up moonshots, Berríos has simply been a bit off. That’s enough in the big leagues, especially while tinkering with some early adjustments and playing against a strong schedule through April and May. Berríos is the type of pitcher who will stay in a groove once he finds it, too. Over Berríos’ previous five seasons, he posted a 3.74 ERA and topped 190 innings in three of the four full-length campaigns. With each passing season, consistent quality over that number of innings grows more rare.

“My last two starts were not the way I want, but that’s part of the game,” Berríos said. “I just keep trying, keep working hard between starts, and tonight was able to throw the game I wanted. I [wished for] and I [wanted] this game so much. Thank God I had it tonight.”

Thankfully for the Blue Jays, the top of the rotation has been buoyed by Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah. Gausman is off to a tremendous start to his five-year, $110 million deal, posting a 2.40 ERA with just two walks and not a single home run allowed through 45 innings. Manoah has dazzled as a sophomore, too, opening the year with a 1.71 ERA over seven starts. Between this and the offense, it’s been easy to miss Berríos’ slow start.

When this rotation works how it’s supposed to, though, Berríos does not need to be the clear-cut ace. He, Manoah and Gausman form a three-headed monster, regardless of the order they roll out in, while Yusei Kikuchi’s great outing on Monday leaves optimism that better days are ahead. If Hyun Jin Ryu can return to anything close to his 2020 and early ‘21 forms, that’s one fine rotation.

“We believe in each other and we know we are an amazing pitching staff,” Berríos said. “The only thing for us now is to keep going out there, execute our work and work together like we’ve been doing so far. Yesterday, I saw Kikuchi, the way he throws, and I took that into my outing tonight. He inspired me. I did well like he did last night.”

Just as the quiet offense has taken some spotlight away from Berríos, he might have returned that favor, too. Springer’s three-run triple might look like a big blast in the box score, but it was a blooper that left his bat at just 71.5 mph and dropped in front of a diving Steven Souza Jr. before rolling past him. Coming off a week with some tough batted-ball luck, though, the Blue Jays aren’t complaining.

Having Berríos back to who he’s capable of being, though, would be one of the biggest possible boosts to this organization. Capable of being one of the game’s most reliable frontline starters, Berríos should be a win machine once this lineup is playing to its capabilities, and like any great pitcher, he’ll know how and when to rise to the occasion.