TORONTO – The focus, quite rightfully, tends to be on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s increasingly impressive exploits at the plate. He is in the midst of a remarkably special offensive season, one with the potential to be among the best ever by a Toronto Blue Jays player if it continues at the current pace.
On occasion, his rapidly steadying play at first base gets some props, too, as his range, reads and picks continue to improve as his comfort at the position grows. And then there’s the often-overlooked gains he’s made on the basepaths, where his sprint speed has improved from an average of 25.3 feet per second last year to a middle of the pack 27.0 this year.
That difference was enough for Guerrero to beat out an infield single in the third inning on Saturday – outrunning Alex Bregman’s strong throw after the third baseman dove to snare a potential double – and trigger a four-run rally that carried the Blue Jays to a 6-2 win over the Houston Astros.
Teoscar Hernandez followed the good hustle play with another base hit and Guerrero then sped home on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s base hit to shallow left field, scoring easily ahead of Chas McCormick’s poor throw home. Joe Panik then delivered a three-run homer to left that made it a 4-1 game and the Blue Jays didn’t look back from there.
Guerrero’s strong baserunning underlined the comprehensive manner in which the emergent 22-year-old can dominate a baseball game, all of which were on display on Saturday.
In the first inning, as Carlos Correa beat out an infield single, Guerrero alertly spotted Jose Altuve rounding second and trying for third on the play, firing a laser across the diamond to covering shortstop Bo Bichette for a pivotal out. The next inning, he ranged to his right to snag a Yuli Gurriel grounder and relayed cleanly to starter Ross Stripling.
After playing catalyst during the decisive fourth, Guerrero put the dagger in Jose Urquidy’s ill-fated start in the fifth when he timed up a 77.8 m.p.h. slider and launched a high-arching drive over the wall in left field. The two-run shot made it 6-1.
For good measure, Guerrero made a nice pick on a Myles Straw smash in the seventh, making meaningful contributions in every facet of the game.
The only thing he didn’t do against the Astros was pitch, and the Blue Jays had this one well in hand.
Stripling continued a recent resurgence after three rough outings in May, dodging some traffic in five innings of one-run ball. After he was roughed up for six runs in 3.2 innings by Boston on May 19, he realized he had been tipping his pitches, describing on the latest edition of his podcast The Big Swing how he “was going up to the bill of my cap on some pitches, like my curveball, (and) on other pitches I was only going up to my chin.”
Besides the tell, there was disruption to his timing from being in a different position on each pitch, “so my misses were big. And as we saw when my misses were big, they were getting hammered, I was giving up homers, I was giving up damage. So now, long story short, my glove is in the same spot so when I go to deliver, my timing is the same every single pitch, it doesn’t move so I’m not tipping pitches and from what I’ve seen, I’m more deceptive and my misses are smaller.”
The Astros started Stripling’s May slide by getting him for three runs in 3.2 innings May 7 in Houston, but he was in much better control on Saturday. Guerrero’s play helped him avoid damage in the first, Gurriel Jr., made a terrific throw to get Straw trying to score from second on an Altuve single in the second and he was fine until the fourth, when he walked Straw with the bases loaded after a pair of two-out singles and a hit by pitch on Aledmys Diaz that knocked the former Blue Jay out of the game.
Stripling settled to get Maldonado and end the inning, pitched a clean fifth and then handed things over to the bullpen, where Tim Mayza, Trent Thornton and Rafael Dolis finished things out.
All of that made sure the latest tour de force from Guerrero didn’t go to waste. Outfielder Randal Grichuk said earlier in the day that the Blue Jays “wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now if it wasn’t for him,” and with one of his most complete performances of the season, the young sluggers demonstrated why.
