A recent hot streak has the Toronto Blue Jays just a few games out of first place in the American League East.

A pair of offseason additions, Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin, have been praised for Toronto's success.

"I saw it the first couple of days of spring training -- that there's something different about these two," John Gibbons said. "We had heard these guys are winners. But you want to see it for yourself, and we could see it early on.

"They're both kind of uniters. There's a lot of stuff going on in our clubhouse now that you used to see back in my playing days -- a lot of ribbing and guys cutting each other up. I'm not sure we've had that here in the past. Maybe more in a malicious way, but now it's in good fun. These guys have loosened things up and helped this team focus."

Martin, who signed a five-year, $82 million deal as a free agent, leads Major League catchers with 40 runs scored and is second in OPS at .864 and Wins Above Replacement at 2.5.

Donaldson, who came over from the Oakland Athletics in a deal for Brett Lawrie and three Minor Leaguers, has 54 runs scored, is fourth in wins above replacement at 3.9 and fifth in total bases with 148.