TORONTO -- The Blue Jays set the stage for a walk-off in Monday’s series opener against Cleveland, one of the few squares left on this week’s bingo card to complete the perfect homecoming to Toronto, but ended up on the wrong end after Brad Hand allowed three runs in the 10th.

The 5-2 loss felt awfully quiet after the Blue Jays swept the Royals over the weekend, riding the club’s biggest wave of momentum this season after adding José Berríos at the Trade Deadline. Hand was another headlining addition, but Amed Rosario broke the tie in extras with an RBI single, before José Ramírez cushioned the lead with a towering shot off the left-field foul pole.

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Late offense was the missing ingredient for the Blue Jays, and that’s not a new issue. This lineup has often done its heavy lifting in the early innings, then turned to the bullpen to carry the baton to the finish line. On Monday, Toronto’s entire offense came on one loud swing of the bat from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- who else -- back in the sixth inning.

Guerrero launched a two-run rocket to left field, a 115.2 mph shot that cleared the fence in an instant. As Guerrero walked backwards across home plate and into the other batter’s box, admiring the ball as it smashed into the bleachers, he casually moved his bat from his left hand to his right and chucked it back towards the dugout.

You’re seeing more of Guerrero’s personality with each passing week. The 20-year-old kid who debuted in 2019 is still in there -- his teammates taped him to the bench on Sunday to keep him out of trouble in the dugout -- but this version of Guerrero knows he’s one of baseball’s most dominant players and is finally in full control of his gifts.

With 34 home runs, Guerrero trails only Shohei Ohtani (37) of the Angels for the MLB lead, and the two are on a collision course as the top two candidates for the American League MVP Award.

The Blue Jays didn’t threaten down the stretch, though, and that’s something worth monitoring over the final two months of the season as they try to make a run in the AL East and AL Wild Card races. This lineup’s aggressive style has worked brilliantly at times in early situations, but high-power bullpen arms and matchups have caused some problems for them. From innings one through six, the Blue Jays have a team OPS of .827, which is comfortably the best in baseball entering play Monday. From the seventh to the ninth, they fall to 20th with a .685 OPS.

“Late-inning offense is going to be big for us,” Marcus Semien said over the weekend. “I’ve talked about that before, but putting together good at-bats against the back ends of bullpens. We do a lot of homework on the starter, but I think it’s going to be important in August and September to get to those bullpens as well.”

Manager Charlie Montoyo sees this happening, but it’s not something that has a quick fix or mechanical adjustment. Part of it is youth and part of it is more difficult to explain, but bullpens don’t exactly get easier down the stretch and into October.

“For such a good lineup that swings the bat well, we haven’t done that very often,” Montoyo said. “That’s something we need to change. We need to do better against the better relievers there at the end. We should and we should be able to, and I think we will. We’ve got good hitters.”

Before Cleveland got to Hand late, Robbie Ray got the Blue Jays started with six innings of two-run ball -- which looked more difficult than it sounds. Cleveland wasn’t chasing, so Ray had to shift his plan mid-start and try to find some weak contact. He had to grind through it, and gave Cleveland’s lineup full credit for making him do so, but another layer to Ray’s exceptional season is that he’s been able to make it work even when things don’t go exactly according to plan. Adam Cimber, Joakim Soria and Jordan Romano all followed with scoreless innings of relief, giving the Blue Jays a chance down the stretch.

Eventually, some of these late chances will need to be capitalized on. A team doesn’t make a season-defining run without stealing a few along the way, and despite what the numbers say, this lineup should be built to treat bullpens the same way they’ve treated rotations across the league.