Will the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen come around in time for the postseason?

A group that was quietly a strength for this team through July, has stumbled in August and September so far.

There's some bad luck and bad timing involved here, given that a handful of key pieces are struggling at the same time, but there's also a common theme here, and there's nothing complicated about it.

Toronto's bullpen just isn't throwing enough strikes.

Getting Braydon Fisher back has been a big help help, and Tommy Nance has quietly been rolling with a 0.86 ERA over 21 innings.

Most importantly, Nance is filling up the zone and has walked just five batters over that span, and John Schneider continues to make one thing clear: If you want to pitch in big spots, throw strikes.

Hard-throwing right-hander Louis Varland looked better versus versus the Astros.

He twirled 1 1/3 shutout innings of work, one of the eight scoreless appearances from Toronto's bullpen against the Astros.

It certainly helped that Gausman took the bullpen off the table with Thursday's complete game, but the Jays' relief group appears much improved over the last two series.

The Jays' bullpen owns a 1.15 ERA in the last six contests, the second-lowest mark in the big leagues.

Brendon Little, Yariel Rodriguez and a refreshed Braydon Fisher had all thrown four straight scoreless outings.

The exception is Jeff Hoffman, the team's clear closer. After a scoreless 10-pitch outing in Tuesday's comeback win, Hoffman allowed a game-breaking solo homer in Wednesday's ninth-inning loss.

That's the exact trend Hoffman's battled all season. He's rattled off lengthy stretches of dominance.

The strikeouts are high and the walks largely contained. Then he runs into a crushing homer.

Schneider's diagnosis of Hoffman's homer issue is twofold. In part, it's teams preparing more aggressively for a closer, the manager said.

It's also pitch deployment, the sometimes ineffective sequencing of Hoffman's three offerings.

The Jays focused on Hoffman's pitch usage all season, attempting to correct the course.

It's not the first time pitch deployment has been mentioned as a potential fix, but the homers keep coming.

If Hoffman enters one of his strong stretches at the end of the season and carries it through October, the Jays seem to have the ingredients of formidability.

But the fear of one bad pitch in the ninth, and one big homer will undoubtedly remain.

Those lone mistakes are magnified in the playoffs. Avoiding that bad pitch could be the difference between moving on and planning vacation.