The 2020 Blue Jays refuse to be boring, and it was Teoscar Hernández's turn in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday.

Down a run with the bases loaded and facing the game's final strike, Hernández ripped a single through the left side of the infield and Randal Grichuk sped from second base to slide by the tag at home plate just in time to walk off the Orioles 6-5 at Sahlen Field.

The win moves the Blue Jays to 18-14 as the playoffs are no longer just a possibility but an in-house expectation for a team with as much momentum as any in baseball. After taking the first three games of this series over the Orioles, who are quickly fading in the rear-view mirror, the Blue Jays have a shot at the sweep on Monday afternoon.

• Box score

Hernández knows what it looks like when the Blue Jays are miles outside the playoff picture at August's end. He knows how the Trade Deadline looks from the other side, too, coming to Toronto from the Astros on Deadline day in 2017. So the journey from then to now is particularly rewarding for Hernández, who sat tied for second in the American League with 12 home runs by Sunday's last out.

“When I got here, we had [José] Bautista, [Josh] Donaldson, [Russell] Martin, [Troy] Tulowitzki, [Justin] Smoak -- all of those big guys,” Hernández said. “When I got traded, I got excited because I was going to a team that competes every time. As soon as I got here, everybody was going out; they were trading every guy. It’s been a tough time, but we’re here.”

There’s room for the Blue Jays to add to this lineup still, especially on the left side of the infield or with another depth bat. But the majority of Toronto’s focus is on pitching. Tanner Roark looked sharp for five innings on Sunday, but it unraveled in an instant when he went back out for the sixth, leaving him with four earned runs on eight hits over five-plus innings of work.

“It was just a poor job on my part -- pretty pathetic on my part -- after we get two runs in the bottom half then I go out there and give up three,” said the always matter-of-fact righty. “That’s poor on my part, but the good thing is we won. Playing small ball and doing the little things right, it paid off.”

Roark now owns a 5.33 ERA, with his 15 walks over 27 innings being particularly uncharacteristic. He’ll have every opportunity to get back on track through September, and the Blue Jays will need it. Toronto got immediate results with their first splash on the pitching market via Taijuan Walker’s six shutout innings in his Saturday debut. The club won’t get that every time out, and it’s unlikely they land a top-end starter before the Deadline, but the Walker move is an excellent blueprint.

Internally, the Blue Jays do have arms like Anthony Kay and Thomas Hatch, but both GM Ross Atkins and manager Charlie Montoyo have said one of the hidden values in adding Walker is that it allowed them to keep those young starters in multi-inning bullpen roles. Shun Yamaguchi is also stretching out and could pitch the bulk of Tuesday’s projected bullpen game, but adding another arm on top of these names is still the best-case scenario.

Perhaps it doesn’t need to be a traditional starter, either. Kay and Hatch have nailed their roles this season, and if the Blue Jays find an arm they like over two-to-three-inning stints, there are plenty of ways to deploy that. “Run prevention” is the broad term that Atkins put on his club’s priorities at this Deadline, which extends to bench depth, too, but it leaves plenty of room for Toronto to target quality innings and outs over traditional starter and reliever roles.

• Loss to 'pen may be fixed by another's return

Ken Giles is due to face live hitters soon as he works back from a right forearm strain, which will be a major boost for a bullpen that’s also without Jordan Romano, while No. 1 prospect Nate Pearson has started to play catch as he rehabs from right elbow tightness. Pearson could even slide into a hybrid multi-inning role if that creates a quicker path for his return, too, so the Blue Jays have several different ways to put this puzzle together depending on what happens Monday.