Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s Big Night Highlights Differences Between Toronto Blue Jays And New York Yankees

The best way to describe Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s 350th regular season game might be this: homer, bloodied hand, taped right ring finger, homer, double, homer, game-ending catch.

In a display which is among the reasons the Toronto Blue Jays are a popular World Series team and possibly better than the Yankees, it all unfolded with an impressive display Wednesday night. It was the kind of display that made the movie Guerrero hinted as an opening weekend smash.

A month ago, when normal spring training resumed following the owner’s lockout, Guerrero said last season was the trailer and this year would be the movie. The trailer Guerrero referenced was his 48 homers that made him the AL MVP runner up to Shohei Ohtani and also reached 40 homers on Labor Day at Yankee Stadium.

The movie Guerrero is starring in features a terrific opening act, culminating in what unfolded Wednesday against two of the Yankees’ best pitchers in Gerrit Cole and Jonathan Loaisiga.

For the first act, Guerrero parked a hanging slider just out of the reach of Aaron Hicks, whose leaping try was in vain because the ball caromed off the center fielder’s glove and onto the netting. It was confirmed via a brief review, though you could quip the umpires just wanted another look at his 74th home run swing.

The second act was part of his continued improvement after moving from third base to first base following the 2019 season. He stretched to scoop a throw from Bo Bichette but also used his bare right hand to maintain balance. Just one problem, Hicks raced down the line and his foot collided and bloodied Guerrero’s hand.

“He was bleeding a lot,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “It was like I was in that Rocky movie: ‘Cut me, Mick — I’m bleeding!’”

For about 30 seconds to a minute it seemed like Guerrero might actually exit. Instead he got taped up and went right back at it while telling the manager who also played in the minors with his father Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. there was no way he would exit for something that about three hours later required two stitches.

“I already had in my mind that I wasn’t going to come out of the game no matter what,” Guerrero said through an interpreter.

“I don’t want you to come out of the game!” Montoyo said he as he recalled the moment with a laugh. “You’ve got to give him a lot of credit. So many people would have come out, you know?

Staying in meant swatting a fastball well off the plate and below the belt off an advertisement for a food delivery app in the third inning, prompting play-by-play man Buck Martinez to say: “You can step on my hand but you can’t hold me back.”

“I was just trying to react,” Guerrero said. “I mean, when you’re up there, you’re not really paying attention to a location, especially at that velo. All I did was just see the pitch and react.”

In the sixth he also showed his ability for speed when he raced out of the box and his helmet flung off before the first base line resulting in a double.

Then on the first pitch of the eighth, a 443-foot drive on a pitch that was somewhat inside but also over the middle of the plate.

Guerrero is up to two three-homer games, which is two more than his father in a career where he hit 449 homers. And in perhaps another sign of how impressive a career he is enjoying to date, the other three-homer game was April 27, 2021 when he hit two off Max Scherzer.

And for the foreseeable future, he is the player the Yankees and virtually any other team will struggle to retire and experience some nights where they might merely settle for tipping their caps at home like Cole did after allowing the double.

“He’s just better than everyone else,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the mound, what pitches are thrown. He put those swings on really good pitches. And when guys do that, it’s not fun when you’re on the other side of it.”

Lately the Yankees do not enjoy their games with the Blue Jays, mostly because of how Guerrero can flick his wrists and send homers into the night against all kinds of pitching.

“Otherworldly hitting,” Boone said. “One of the best hitters in the world.”

And a significant problem for opposing pitchers no matter how much data they consume.