Vladdy’s back! Jr. smashes 2 homers vs. O’s
HELLO MLB– V.G.JR. IS BACK , AND HE’S BLASTING BALLS OUT OF THE PARK!!!!!!
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched two home runs on Monday night in Toronto, his 37th and 38th of the season, to lead the Blue Jays to a 7-3 win over the Orioles. It was the exact type of loud, convincing win this team has been grasping for in recent weeks while their offense struggled to create any sort of separation.
“You knew that was coming,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “He’s having a great year and he’s still a young guy going through the ups and downs of a long season. Now he’s back to having good at-bats. All it takes is seeing the ball better and having better at-bats, and that’s what he’s done.”
Guerrero has shown clear signs lately that a sleepy August is behind him, with seven hits in his past four games, but he’ll always be measured by power. With just three home runs through the first 29 days of August and none since Aug. 20, Guerrero’s OPS had dipped below 1.000 for the first time since May 13. That’s a high bar to be held to, but it’s the superstar treatment Guerrero now deserves. The home runs were Vladdy classics, too.
First came the towering 423-footer in the fourth, which was gone the moment Guerrero started his swing and soared into the second deck. Then came the hardest-hit ball of the night at 112.1 mph, a two-run shot that took a much lower flight path to smack off the facing of the second deck and rollled back into center field.
“He’s a really good hitter. He’s putting up an MVP-type season. He’s smashin’ baseballs,” said Orioles’ starter Chris Ellis. “I tried to throw him a fastball away, it leaked over the middle of the plate and he turned and burned on it. That’s what good hitters do, and he’s one of the best in the league. Hats off to him.”
Guerrero put the Blue Jays on his back Monday, but it was Teoscar Hernández who put them in front and gave Robbie Ray the well-earned win, saving him from a sixth consecutive no-decision despite his Cy Young-caliber pitching in August. He threw seven innings of two-run ball and racked up 10 strikeouts, including his 200th of the season.
Timely hitting has evaded the Blue Jays of late, leaving their pitchers with zero margin for error, but when Hernández’s sixth-inning double cashed in Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette — blowing through the stop sign to score — Ray finally had the breathing room he deserved.
@JrVladimil,
Toronto’s recent troubles hitting with runners in scoring position, or late in games, have been confusing for all involved. This is a lineup topped by George Springer — who returned from the IL Monday with a walk, hit and stolen base — and four All-Stars. It’s been a while since they had a classic offensive outburst, and even when the Blue Jays took two of three from the Tigers this past weekend in Detroit, they scraped together just six runs. Putting up seven against the Orioles isn’t exactly taking down Goliath, as Baltimore isn’t far removed from a 19-game losing streak, but every win matters as Toronto (69-61) looks to make a run in the AL Wild Card race, where it now sits 4 1/2 games back of Boston (75-58), which fell to Tampa Bay (83-48) on Monday.
“It’s so magnified with where we are in the standings and how well they’ve performed offensively all year,” GM Ross Atkins said Monday. “We’ve had so many big individual performances, and in many cases a lot of good team performances on the offensive side. I think it’s a combination of guys hitting a bit of a lull, which does happen. Obviously, if we had the answer to why that’s occurring then it would be occurring less, so we keep [working to] find the solution.”
Prior to the game, Atkins said that there’s value in not just adding Springer’s talent back to the lineup, but also adding a different type of hitter with a different approach, diversifying what the opposing pitcher sees. Springer did his part and looked healthy, but he’s been a part of talented lineups before that have gone through cold snaps. The hope for Springer and the Blue Jays is that this launches them out of it.
“We’ve been grinding a little bit,” Springer said. “We haven’t got the results we want offensively, but that’s the game. I think it was a good night after a weird travel day. It’s good to see contributions up and down the lineup.”
Springer’s return changes this lineup, but there is no player on this roster with the game-changing ceiling of Guerrero. Guerrero is the AL MVP Award, there may be no other player in baseball who rivals Guerrero’s ceiling right now from an offensive standpoint. Guerrero can’t do it alone, but for the Blue Jays to make a run, they need more of this, the Guerrero we all saw from April through July.
Guerrero put the Blue Jays on his back Monday.
Prior to the game, Atkins said that there’s value in not just adding Springer’s talent back to the lineup, but also adding a different type of hitter with a different approach, diversifying what the opposing pitcher sees. Springer did his part and looked healthy, but he’s been a part of talented lineups before that have gone through cold snaps. The hope for Springer and the Blue Jays is that this launches them out of it.
“We’ve been grinding a little bit,” Springer said. “We haven’t got the results we want offensively, but that’s the game. I think it was a good night after a weird travel day. It’s good to see contributions up and down the lineup.”
Springer’s return changes this lineup, but there is no player on this roster with the game-changing ceiling of Guerrero. Guerrero will win the AL MVP Award, there may be no player in baseball who rivals Guerrero’s ceiling right now from an offensive standpoint. Guerrero can’t do it alone, but for the Blue Jays to make a run, they need more of this, the Guerrero we all saw from April through July.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched two home runs on Monday night in Toronto, his 37th and 38th of the season, to lead the Blue Jays to a 7-3 win over the Orioles. It was the exact type of loud, convincing win this team has been grasping for in recent weeks while their offense struggled to create any sort of separation.
“You knew that was coming,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “He’s having a great year and he’s still a young guy going through the ups and downs of a long season. Now he’s back to having good at-bats. All it takes is seeing the ball better and having better at-bats, and that’s what he’s done.”
Guerrero has shown clear signs lately that a sleepy August is behind him, with seven hits in his past four games, but he’ll always be measured by power. With just three home runs through the first 29 days of August and none since Aug. 20, Guerrero’s OPS had dipped below 1.000 for the first time since May 13. That’s a high bar to be held to, but it’s the superstar treatment Guerrero now deserves. The home runs were Vladdy classics, too.
First came the towering 423-footer in the fourth, which was gone the moment Guerrero started his swing and soared into the second deck. Then came the hardest-hit ball of the night at 112.1 mph, a two-run shot that took a much lower flight path to smack off the facing of the second deck and rollled back into center field.
“He’s a really great hitter. He’s putting up an MVP-type season. He’s smashin’ baseballs,” said Orioles’ starter Chris Ellis. “I tried to throw him a fastball away, it leaked over the middle of the plate and he turned and burned on it. That’s what good hitters do, and he’s one of the best in the league. Hats off to him.”
Guerrero put the Blue Jays on his back Monday, but it was Teoscar Hernández who put them in front and gave Robbie Ray the well-earned win, saving him from a sixth consecutive no-decision despite his Cy Young-caliber pitching in August. He threw seven innings of two-run ball and racked up 10 strikeouts, including his 200th of the season.
Guerrero Jr. goes deep twice as Blue Jays earn 3rd straight win
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. slammed in four runs with a pair of homers, but he shared the spotlight with his Blue Jays teammates George Springer and Robbie Ray on Monday.
Ray (10-5) struck out 10 to win for the first time since July 28. The lefty was the victim of five consecutive no-decisions, including a brilliant 14 strikeout effort against the Chicago White Sox in his last outing.
“He’s been our horse,” Springer said.
“He gave us everything he had, and he does that every time he has the ball. He has a presence about him that rubs off on us a little bit.”
Springer does, too. This season, the Blue Jays outfielder has been limited to 50 games because of first-half quad and oblique ailments and a recent two-week stretch on the injured list with a left knee sprain.
The Blue Jays, however, have gone 30-20 with him in the lineup. So he will fill the designated hitter’s role until he is deemed fit enough to play the outfield. But he did surprise his teammates by stealing second base, the back end of a double steal in the third inning with newcomer Jarrod Dyson, who swiped third.
“I don’t really have an explanation for it,” Springer said. “It wasn’t something I planned to do, I just kind of did it.
“Physically, it was a good sign.”
@JrVladimil
Blue Jays take lead with 3-run 6th inning
Springer sparked a three-run sixth inning with a lead-off single to right. With the Blue Jays behind 2-1 to the team with the worst record in Major League Baseball, Springer scored on Bo Bichette’s punch double past Baltimore second baseman Jorge Mateo. Teoscar Hernandez then knocked in two more runs with a double. Bichette scored even though third base coach Luis Rivera had put up the stop sign.
“He’s got that veteran presence at the top of our lineup,” Ray said of Springer’s return. “He’s been there before, and he knows how to grind. So to have him back not only from an on-field perspective but from a mental perspective for the team is huge.”
He has earned the trust of pitching coach Pete Walker, bullpen coach Matt Buschmann and manager Charlie Montoyo.
“I feel the trust is there, and it’s only grown,” said Ray, who celebrates the one-year anniversary of his trade to Toronto from Tampa Bay on Tuesday. “I feel like Charlie’s allowed me to go deeper and push the envelope a little bit.
“Being able to go out there and put up zeros and give my team a chance to win on a nightly basis. I think that’s the main goal.”
Ray gave up a one-out homer to Baltimore rookie first baseman Ryan Mountcastle in the first inning, only to have Guerrero pull Toronto even with his first homer to left in the fourth inning.
A Mountcastle infield hit in the sixth inning knocked in Kelvin Gutierrez for a 2-1 lead. But three runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings gave the Blue Jays their 13th win in 19 games since their Rogers Centre return on July 30.
Guerrero’s three-run blast in the seventh was his 38th homer of the season, but only his fourth in 28 games in August.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. puts offence in flight after late arrival
A visit from the putrid Baltimore Orioles with the Blue Jays in the midst of their worst hitting slump of the season could have gone either way, and early on things didn’t look promising as rookie Chris Ellis held the home side hitless in his first trip through the batting order.
The first hit didn’t come until the fourth inning, but when it did it came with a bang. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’d had only three home runs in the entire month of August, obliterated an 0-and-1 fastball, driving it into the 200 level in deep left where it nestled among the crowd 423 feet away.
The Vladdy jack tied the score, but if it lit a fire under his teammates it took a while to really get crackling. When it did, though, we saw things we haven’t seen in weeks.
In the bottom of the sixth, with Baltimore having just pulled ahead on an RBI infield single, the Jays had two runners on, nobody out and the three-four-five hitters coming up. That same situation happened twice in Detroit as recently as Sunday, and the Jays came up empty both times.
This time, Guerrero hit a ground ball that wasn’t hard enough for a double-play, advancing the runners, and then Bo Bichette ripped a single through the drawn-in infield to tie the game. Teoscar Hernández followed, 0 for his last 16, and blasted a two-run double into the left-field corner to put the Jays on top for good.
The icing on the cake came in the next inning, when Vladdy got into another one. With two on and two out, the young slugger got a 2-and-1 curveball that dropped right over the middle of the plate and absolutely murdalized it. The ball came off the bat at 112.1 miles per hour — the hardest-hit ball of the game — and might have come back onto the field even harder after it clanked off the facing of the 200 level.
It was the Jays’ first three-run home run in over three weeks, and it gave them a chance to actually exhale in a game for the first time since this slump began — at least for a couple of innings, until a nervous ninth forced closer Jordan Romano into the game to get the final two outs.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | |||
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 Guerrero with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019
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| Toronto Blue Jays – No. 27 | |||
| First baseman / Third baseman / Designated hitter | |||
| Born: March 16, 1999 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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| MLB debut | |||
| April 26, 2019, for the Toronto Blue Jays | |||
| MLB statistics (through August 30, 2021) |
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| Batting average | .287 | ||
| Home runs | 62 | ||
| Runs batted in | 197 | ||
| Teams | |||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
Vladimir Guerrero Ramos Jr. (born March 16, 1999), nicknamed Vlad Jr. & Vladdy Jr., is a Canadian-Dominican professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and designated hitter for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the son of former MLB player and Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. He made his major league debut in April 2019.
Early life
Guerrero is the son of former AL MVP Vladimir Guerrero, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in January 2018, and the nephew of MLB player Wilton Guerrero. He was born in Montreal while his father was playing for the Montreal Expos and is a Canadian citizen. His mother, Riquelma Ramos, learned to speak French while living in Montreal and later moved with him to the Dominican Republic, where Vladimir Jr. spent most of his early childhood. During summers he would stay with his father.
When his father left the Expos in 2003, he got a standing ovation in his last game at Olympic Stadium and Vladimir Sr.’s teammates sent Vladimir Jr., wearing a kiddie version of the Expos uniform, out onto the field to join him. His father told him to take off his helmet and wave to the crowd. The photo is an iconic image for Canadian sports fans.
Professional career
Minor leagues
Eligible for free agency in 2015, Baseball America ranked Guerrero as the top international free agent, and MLB.com ranked him the fourth-best. He signed with Toronto on July 2, 2015, for $3.9 million at age 16. Guerrero was assigned to extended spring training camp to open the 2016 minor league season. Guerrero made his professional baseball debut with the Rookie Advanced Bluefield Blue Jays on June 23. Guerrero hit his first professional home run on June 24, a two-run shot in a 4–2 loss to the Bristol Pirates. On August 12, Guerrero recorded his first multi-home run game, hitting two solo shots in an 18–5 win against the Pulaski Yankees. Later in August, he was named the Appalachian League‘s All-Star at third base. Guerrero played in 62 games for Bluefield in 2016, and hit .271 with eight home runs, 46 runs batted in (RBI), and 15 stolen bases. On January 24, 2017, MLB named Guerrero the third best prospect at third base heading into the 2017 minor league season.
Guerrero opened the 2017 minor league season with the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts. In a 6–3 win over the Great Lakes Loons on April 7, he hit his first home run of the season. Guerrero was named a Midwest League All-Star on June 7, and on June 29, he was named to the World team roster for the 2017 All-Star Futures Game. On July 6, the Blue Jays announced Guerrero would be promoted to the Advanced-A Dunedin Blue Jays following the All-Star Futures Game. In a game against the Clearwater Threshers on August 31, Guerrero hit a home run to give the Blue Jays a 5–3 victory, with the win ensuring Dunedin would make the Florida State League playoffs. Guerrero finished the 2017 regular season with a .323 batting average, 13 home runs, and 76 RBI in 119 games played. He also walked more than he struck out, with 76 and 62 respectively, and posted a .910 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). On September 6, Guerrero was named ESPN‘s Prospect of the Year. During the offseason, he played in 26 games for the Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League.
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Entering the 2018 season, Guerrero was considered the top prospect in the Blue Jays organization by MLB and Baseball America. On March 23, Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro announced that Guerrero would begin the season with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Through the first month of the season, he led the Eastern League with a .398 batting average and 30 runs batted in. On June 4, Guerrero was named the Eastern League’s Player of the Month after hitting .438 with nine home runs and 28 RBI in May. On June 6, Guerrero was removed from a game against the Akron RubberDucks with a leg injury. Three days later, it was determined that he had a strained patellar ligament in his left knee, and would be on the disabled list for at least four weeks. On July 28, it was announced that Guerrero would be promoted to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons following his father’s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Guerrero hit .402 with 14 home runs and 60 RBI in 61 games with New Hampshire. On August 30, the Blue Jays added Guerrero to the roster of the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League (AFL).
Entering 2019 spring training, questions arose as to whether the Blue Jays organization would have Guerrero on the Opening Day roster, or seek to manipulate his MLB service time by assigning him to the minors to begin the season. Keeping Guerrero in the minor leagues for the first two weeks of the season would prevent him from reaching free agency until after the 2025 season. On March 10, the Blue Jays announced that Guerrero had suffered an oblique strain two days earlier and was ruled out for the rest of spring training.
Toronto Blue Jays
2019
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On April 24, 2019, the Blue Jays announced that Guerrero would be called up from Triple-A Buffalo on April 26. Guerrero was considered the top prospect in all of professional baseball prior to being called up, and was hitting .367/.424/.700 with three home runs and eight RBIs during an eight-game stint with Buffalo in 2019. He went hitless in his first three at-bats against the Oakland Athletics before hitting a double in the bottom of the ninth inning and exiting for a pinch runner. Guerrero recorded his first multi hit game, and reached base safely four times, on May 11.
On May 14, against the San Francisco Giants in Oracle Park, Guerrero hit his first major league home run in the first inning off Nick Vincent. At 20 years and 59 days of age, Guerrero became the youngest Blue Jay to hit a home run, breaking Danny Ainge‘s record by 18 days. In the sixth inning, with two men on, he hit another home run off Reyes Moronta. He hit two more home runs in the following series against the Chicago White Sox, including one that bounced off the glove of center fielder Leury Garcia and over the wall. Guerrero’s four home runs over a six-game road trip earned him the American League Player of the Week Award, and made him the youngest Blue Jay to win the award. On May 22, he hit his first home run at the Rogers Centre off Rick Porcello of the Boston Red Sox. On May 31, Guerrero’s sixth home run, against the Colorado Rockies, was the 1,135th home run in May throughout Major League Baseball, breaking the MLB record for most home runs in a single month. On July 8, he broke the single round home run record in the Home Run Derby with a total of 40 home runs after three overtimes in the semifinals against Joc Pederson. He also broke the record for most home runs in a derby with 91, although he lost the final round to Pete Alonso. In 2019, Guerrero batted .272/.339/.433 with 15 home runs and 69 RBI in 464 at bats. He hit the ball with the second highest exit velocity (118.9 mph) of all balls hit by major league batters in 2019.
2020
The start of the 2020 campaign was delayed into July by the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 10, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo announced that Guerrero would shift primarily to playing first base, but would still play at third base and designated hitter when necessary. Overall with the 2020 Blue Jays, Guerrero played in all 60 games of the shortened season and batted .262 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs.
2021
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Guerrero began the 2021 MLB season at a substantially lower weight than he did each of the previous two seasons. After beginning a weight loss regimen in July 2020, Guerrero went on to lose 42 pounds. The reduced weight made him feel “quicker, stronger and more resilient.” Guerrero opened the 2021 season as the Blue Jays primary first baseman while also getting routine starts at the designated hitter position.
On April 27, 2021, Guerrero had his first career three-homer game, including a grand slam against Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer, to go along with 7 RBI on the day. On June 21, Guerrero rejected an invitation to participate in the 2021 Home Run Derby, despite setting the records for most home runs in a single round (29) and most home runs in a single derby (91) in 2019. He stated that he was looking forward to playing in the All-Star Game but would like to use the time to otherwise regroup and “refresh mentally” for the second half of the season. On June 26, Guerrero hit his 50th career home run in his 258th career game, reaching the milestone in the exact same number of games as his father.
The MLB announced on June 27 that Guerrero was a voting finalist for the starting first base position at the 2021 All-Star Game in Colorado, having led all MLB players in Phase 1 of voting with 2,704,788 votes. The next closest vote-getter was Ronald Acuna Jr., a center fielder for the Atlanta Braves of the National League. On June 28, Guerrero was named the American League Player of the Week, after hitting home runs in three consecutive games, driving in seven runs and batting to a .391/.481/.826 slash line. It was Guerrero’s first Player of the Week honor since August 2019. On July 1, Guerrero was named the starting first baseman for the American League in the All-Star Game. In the game, he hit the 200th home run in All-Star Game history, became part of the third father-son duo to hit home runs in All-Star Games, and was named as the game’s Most Valuable Player. He was the first Blue Jays player to win, the first Canadian citizen to win, and the youngest All-Star Game MVP at age 22 and 119 days, beating Ken Griffey Jr. when he was 22 and 236 days.
Scouting report
Guerrero is seen as a top prospect due to his exceptional hitting ability, which scouts have often graded an 80, the highest possible mark on baseball’s 20-to-80 scouting scale and the first 80 given to a prospect for his hitting. His power has often received a 70 grade, which indicates a “plus-plus” tool in the scouting industry. His defense produces more questions: scouts are unsure if he can remain at third base at the major league level, but he has shown the potential to develop into a passable defender. However, Keith Law states that due to Guerrero’s body type, he is a future designated hitter.[61][62]
Personal life
He speaks some English with his Blue Jays teammates and the staff but gives media interviews, including the one on the field after winning the 2021 All-Star Game MVP, in Spanish using the team’s interpreter. In 2019 he said, “I’m trying to learn as quickly as possible so I can talk to fans.” His cousin Gabriel Guerrero also plays professional baseball. Guerrero has two daughters.[66] In a 2012 paternity suit it was revealed that Vladimir Sr. has eight children with five different women, meaning Vladimir Jr. has at least seven siblings. He has been cared for by his paternal grandmother, Altagracia, during his time in the Blue Jays organization. Guerrero is a Christian.
