TORONTO — Coming out of the All-Star break, multiple Blue Jays echoed the same sentiment. The American League Wild-Card race is wide open, they said. Toronto didn’t need to rattle off a 10-game winning streak to get back into the race, but simply to win every series. Through three games and two losses against the Chicago White Sox, they haven’t achieved that goal.The Jays are a season-worst seven games under .500 and the trade deadline is coming up soon. Sand is running low in Toronto’s 2026 hourglass.“You have to start to win,” manager John Schneider said. “We got to start winning. That’s just the bottom line. Doesn’t really matter how you do it, if you win 1-0, if you win 10-9, you gotta, you gotta start winning.”Here are three takeaways from the Jays’ first series out of the break, including Joe Carter’s challenge to the team, Jeff Hoffman’s adjustments and Trey Yesavage’s command.During statue unveiling, Joe Carter challenged the 2026 JaysJoe Carter doesn’t think about how his life would’ve been different. He doesn’t have to. When you hit a World Series-winning homer and have that moment immortalized with a bronze statue, one the Blue Jays unveiled on Saturday, there’s no need for alternative histories.“Had I not hit the home run,” Carter said, “I figure somebody else would’ve driven in the run and we still would’ve been World champs. That’s how I look at it.”Nobody knows what actually would’ve happened if Carter didn’t clip Mitch Williams’ ninth-inning pitch in October of 1993. There likely would be no statue of Carter. The phrase “back-to-back” may not mean much at Rogers Centre and former stars may not have returned to Toronto this weekend. But the beauty of achieving greatness is there are no what-ifs.“We could’ve failed,” starter Jack Morris said. “But then we wouldn’t be talking about it.”That indisputable achievement is what these modern Blue Jays are still searching for. They came so close — inches away, as Paul Molitor said — from earning it last year. They are, naturally, stuck with so many “what ifs” in Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s lead, Jeff Hoffman’s slider, Addison Barger’s lead in Game 6, Ernie Clement’s deep drive and so many more.As videos of Toronto’s 1993 World Series parade played on the video board ahead of Saturday’s game, John Schneider couldn’t help but think what that would’ve been like last year. Carter, looking to Toronto’s dugout before his ceremonial first pitch, directly challenged the 2026 Jays to reach those heights. Go win the title this time.