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Scherzer and former Jays lefty Matthew Boyd were brilliant, and it was Scherzer who blinked first when Michael Busch took him deep with one out in the sixth.

Boyd had faced the minimum through six innings, but walked Davis Schneider to open the seventh. Ernie Clement bunted the runner over, then Guerrero played hero: blasting an 0-and-2 curveball over the wall in left field for the go-ahead home run, his team-leading 20th of the season.

“Coming back from 0-and-2, I was just fighting the entire at-bat, looking for a pitch to hit,”  Guerrero said through translator Hector Lebron. “It happened that he left that pitch hanging and I connected.”

The lead held through a white-knuckle eighth, and Jeff Hoffman struck out the side around a Nico Hoerner single in the ninth for his 27th save.

The Texas Rangers are on deck starting Friday night at the Rogers Centre.

Fastballs

Little ball

The Jays got the full Brendon Little experience when the left-hander took over for Scherzer, after Matt Shaw’s leadoff double in the eighth put the tying run aboard.

Little walked the first batter he faced, then Ian Happ tried to bunt the runners over. Happ failed on his first two attempts, but Little bounced the 0-and-2 pitch and catcher Tyler Heineman couldn’t corral it. So the wild pitch did what the bunt might have, moving the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position.

Little struck out Happ, then Kyle Tucker, with Heineman digging three balls out of the dirt to keep the Jays on top.

”(Little) did what he does,” said Scherzer, marvelling at the escape act. “He goes out there and attacks the zone with sinkers and curveballs and it’s really, really nasty. And you get big strikeouts in those situations ... we know Little can do that.”

Right-hander Seranthony Domínguez came on to strike out clean-up hitter Carson Kelly to end the inning.

Owen’s 0-fer

Burlington’s Owen Caissie, the Cubs’ top prospect, made his major-league debut — the first Canadian to start his MLB career on home soil since Mississauga’s Josh Naylor in 2019. The six-foot-three redhead went 0-for-4 with three fly outs to left field and a strikeout. He was robbed of a double by a tremendous Schneider catch in the second inning.

France and the ump

In the seventh, Caissie looped a full-count pitch foul and Jays first baseman Ty France took a couple of steps toward the line and reached out. The ball was beyond his grasp; the umpire, not so much. First base ump Alex MacKay was crouched, looking to make a fair/foul call, and the next thing he knew there was a first baseman in his lap. They tumbled and somehow MacKay wound up underneath France, with his left arm wrapped around France’s left leg.

Mailbag

Sportsandplants found me on Bluesky @wilnerness and asked: “Ty France is hitting well right now. What’s his role when Anthony Santander returns to the lineup?”

France seemed a square peg in a round hole when the Jays picked him up from Minnesota at the trade deadline along with Louis Varland. But he has not only contributed, he’s played almost every day since arriving. A lot of that has to do with George Springer’s injury, and the Jays’ regular DH will be back a lot sooner than Santander.

When Springer comes back, somebody has to go and it’s likely to be Nathan Lukes or Joey Loperfido — until rosters expand in September. France will become the back-up first baseman, or the DH when Springer needs a breather.