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TORONTO — The recipe the Blue Jays used to take the opening game of the series against the Chicago White Sox won’t always work.

On most nights, they’re going to need more than the four hits they collected Monday, but when three of them go over the fence, things have a way of working out.

Because of that, Kevin Pillar and the Blue Jays may be trying to bring the stolen base back.

After the centre fielder swiped a trio of them to send a much-needed jolt of energy through not only the Rogers Centre but the Blue Jays’ dugout, as well, in the first win of the season Saturday against the New York Yankees to kick-start this early three-game winning streak, Pillar noted a desire to run wild more often.

The Jays are not ignorant to their plight this season.

They’re not expected to score many runs – definitely not as many as the consensus top-four contenders around the American League – so they may need to get creative.

Stealing home on a right-hander pitching out of the stretch, as Yankees reliever Dellin Betances was Saturday evening when Pillar took off, is about as creative as it gets.

“You go back three or four years ago, we were a team that led of all of baseball in runs scored and home runs and we don’t have that same lineup anymore,” Pillar said. “We’ve got to find different ways to manufacture runs and it’s not always going to be stealing bases, but it’s putting the thought of stolen bases in the catcher and pitcher’s mind.”

Last year, the Jays finished 14th out of 15 teams in the American League in stolen bases with 53.

Only the plodding, station-to-station Baltimore Orioles had fewer, with just 32.

The story was the same in 2016 when they finished 13th with 54 steals.

But once you go back to 2015 – that offence led baseball in runs scored with 891 – you’ll find a more well-rounded Jays attack, one that stole 88 bases to finish fourth in the AL.

Last year, Pillar paced the Jays with 15 steals, the third straight season he’s stolen at least 14.

The next three players combined to steal 23 bases, and they were all jettisoned in the off-season.

Ezequiel Carrera’s 10 steals are gone. Same with Darwin Barney’s seven and Jose Bautista’s six.

However, there was an injection of athleticism in the form of corner outfielders Curtis Granderson and Randal Grichuk, the two names most likely to follow Pillar’s lead when it comes to running more.

It’s not about stealing the base. It’s about the effect the threat of it can have on his teammates.

“That was something I did, personally, very well a couple years ago when I stole a lot of bases,” Pillar said. “I became a base-stealing threat and the guys behind me benefitted from it. Pitchers don’t throw that curveball down in the dirt anymore, knowing that this guy might steal. They’re more likely to hang a breaking ball.

“If people get on and plant the seed that we’re going to run, pitchers are more likely to make mistakes and hitters are going to benefit from that.”

In an era of launch angles, home runs and high strikeout rates, the stolen base still has its place.

All five teams that made the playoffs in the American League last season were in the top 15 in baseball in steals.

The Boston Red Sox (106 steals), Houston Astros (98), Minnesota Twins (95), New York Yankees (90), and Cleveland Indians (88) all featured well-rounded lineups that could find different ways to score on any given day.

The man often tasked with figuring out if today is the day the stolen base could be in play is Jays first base coach Tim Leiper, who moonlights as the team’s base-running guru.

The 51-year-old spends hours pouring over the deliveries of opposing pitchers and their pick-off moves, looking for an opening to take advantage of.

On one hand, the Jays can’t afford to give away outs. On the other, the lineup isn’t deep enough to just sit back and not push the envelope at times.

“There’s always risk in the stolen base, but if you do your homework, you watch opposing pitchers, you know what they do, you know their tendencies, and you have numbers to back it up, then you eliminate as much risk as you can,” Leiper said.

“Me, being the guy that’s responsible for it, making outs on the bases is kind of stupid. It really doesn’t make any sense. You’re always going to be a lot more dangerous swinging the bat, but there’s times when you want to change the pitchers pitch you and the way they think, and a lot of the things you do on the bases don’t necessarily show up in stolen bases but they show up for the hitters and it’s something you really can’t measure.”

Betances and his trouble holding runners are well known, allowing Pillar to become the first player in franchise history to steal second, third and home in the same trip around the bases.

His straight steal of home was also the first for a Jays’ player since Aaron Hill did it in 2007.

Don’t expect to see that happen again, but Leiper wants to run more in 2018.

“More aggressive, but smart aggressive,” Leiper said. “Our team has changed a lot, so absolutely we need to find a way to manufacture runs and take advantage of things more. That’s going to play a huge part.”

But why did that go away over the past two seasons?

In Leiper’s mind, it was part roster construction, part circumstances.

“Part of it’s the [lack of] speed, part of it was games were close and we didn’t want to make outs on the bases,” Leiper said. “I think there are a lot of factors that went into it. I think the biggest thing it showed us was we’re a better team when we’re able to do things. We have more pieces now that we can do things. We can go first to third better and do a lot of those things.

“If you get three hits in a major-league inning and don’t score, it’s going to be a rough season, and we did that a few times last year. We don’t want that to happen anymore.”