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The offensively challenged group that scored just 50 runs in losing 12 of their next 16 games, stranding scads of runners and dying for the occasional home run?

Or the comeback kids of the past week and a half, spotting the opposition three or four runs nearly every game but rallying to win six of the last 10?

“I think we’ve shown that we can compete with anybody,” said shortstop Bo Bichette after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers at the Rogers Centre, in which the Jays once again erased an early deficit but this time couldn’t close the deal.

“We’ve shown we can win games with defence, with pitching, with offence. But yeah, definitely we’ve gone through a whole season’s worth of types of games in the first couple months.”

Sunday was the sixth straight in which the Jays fell behind early and then scrapped back to close the gap. Four times their opponents scored multiple runs before the Jays answered, and in each of those six games they came back to either take the lead聽or get within one run.

Jos茅 Berr铆os, who gave up a two-run double to Spencer Torkelson in the first inning Sunday but then slammed the door before handing it over to the bullpen in the seventh, is well aware of the offence’s current propensity to get going late.

“I know if I keep the game close, we’ll still have a chance,” said the right-hander, whose ERA dropped to 4.19 in getting a no-decision. “I’m trying. I did my best, but their team has been playing well and today they won the ball game.”

The Jays scored twice in the third to tie it聽鈥� on RBI singles by Alejandro Kirk and Ernie Clement, both of whom played starring roles in Saturday’s 2-1 comeback victory聽鈥� but only managed two hits the rest of the way. Detroit pulled ahead when Torkelson greeted rookie reliever Braydon Fisher with an RBI single in the seventh.

With Chad Green, Brendon Little and Yariel Rodr铆guez unavailable and the team not wanting to push Yimi Garc铆a, Fisher was called on in a high-leverage situation in what was just his fourth major-league appearance, with runners on the corners and two out in a tie game. He had allowed just one hit over 3 2/3 innings to that point.

“I think that it’s an opportunity for someone who’s throwing the ball well to step up,” manager John Schneider said after the game. ”(Fisher’s) got a great breaking ball and just kind of backed up on one to Torkelson, but I think that the more (young pitchers) can get into those spots, their confidence gets a little higher. As a whole, he’s been pretty damn good in his outings here and it was just one bad pitch today.”

This time, the comeback kids could not fashion one more, even with help from Tigers errors in the eighth and ninth innings.

Still, this recent 6-4 run has seen the Jays sweep the first-place Seattle Mariners, who had won 12 of 16 while scoring 6.4 runs per game over that span, and play three one-run games against the Tigers, who have the best record in the major leagues at 31-16.

“That team is really good,” Bichette said of the Tigers, who left town having taken two of three. “They played really well this series and we had a chance to take the series. (That’s) definitely encouraging.”

It’s encouraging, but it’s also not being done with the team we thought we would be seeing. The two biggest position-player acquisitions of the off-season, Andr茅s Gim茅nez and Anthony Santander, have barely contributed.

Gim茅nez is hitting .173 since April 1 and has been out since injuring his right quadriceps on May 7 in Anaheim.

Santander has been in and out of the lineup for the past week and a half. He injured his shoulder diving into the stands in Anaheim, hurt his hip this past weekend and has had a day off for a mental reset as well. Since the switch-hitting slugger’s dive into the crowd, he’s had one hit in 17 at-bats with eight strikeouts. Overall, he’s batting just .187.

“I think the identity is a really close-knit group that’s going to do anything that they can to win every single day,” said Schneider. “Hopefully it just meshes together at some point where you’re getting consistent offensive numbers. I thought the bullpen was great this series (two runs in 13 1/3 innings) and (we got) good starting pitching. I think that’s any manager’s dream of a winning recipe.”

Problem is, the ingredients have only combined well about half the time for the 22-24 Jays. After taking Victoria Day off, they’ll welcome the San Diego Padres, one of the best teams in the National League.

Maybe in one of those games they’ll score first.