TORONTO – Imagine for a minute what the situation would look like for the Toronto Blue Jays if not for the exploits of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The 22-year-old’s emergence, along with the solid starts of Bo Bichette and Randal Grichuk, has been an emergency life raft for a team that over the past week alone has used the regular injured list four times, and the COVID-19 list three times.
Through good and bad he’s delivered, the way he did on a messy Thursday, when he added three more hits, including his third homer of the season, as the Blue Jays buried themselves early and then fell short trying to come back in a 7-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
Not even more Guerrero brilliance could undo the damage from a pair of Cavan Biggio errors that led to three unearned runs, or the slate of miserable news the day brought. Biggio was being evaluated for pain in his right hand after Whit Merrifield’s fourth-inning liner glanced off his fingertips, mere hours after starter Ross Stripling and reliever Jordan Romano hit the injured list.
Anthony Kay was recalled to fill the hole in the rotation and while he was far from sharp, Biggio’s errors and an unnecessary Lourdes Gurriel Jr. dive for a Nicky Lopez drive down the line definitely complicated things.
It was 4-0 when he left in the fourth inning and Tanner Roark, banished to the bullpen after a rainout last Sunday erased his scheduled start against the Los Angeles Angels, couldn’t stem the bleeding until three more runs crossed.
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Roark settled down after that to deliver two clean innings from there, but the damage had been done.
Bichette and Guerrero were the catalysts for an attempted rally with a walk and a single to open up a four-run sixth, while Guerrero’s homer in the seventh pulled the win within reach. But with two on and one out in the ninth, Bichette popped up and Guerrero struck out on a chase slider two pitches after a ball three inches off the plate was called a strike and buried him in a 1-2 deficit.
