TORONTO — After Vladimir Guerrero Jr. concluded his trot around the bases and crossed home plate, there was one more thing to do before he donned the Toronto Blue Jays’ home run jacket.
The first baseman looked toward the upper-level suites at Rogers Centre and pointed with his left hand, as if to say, “This one’s for you.”
Turns out his father, Vladimir Guerrero, was seated there, no doubt proudly enjoying the tear that his son is enjoying at the plate.
Guerrero Jr. drove in four runs and was a single short of the cycle on Thursday, backing Kevin Gausman’s strong outing in the Blue Jays’ 7-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Centre.
Guerrero Jr. doubled in his first at-bat, homered in his third and hustled around the bases for a triple in his fourth plate appearance. Each hit was smoked to the opposite field with respective exit velocities of 104.1 m.p.h., 103.6 m.p.h. and 99 m.p.h.
Simply outstanding.
The Blue Jays slugger and reigning American League Player of the Week has been producing otherworldly numbers of late. He’s now on a 20-game hitting streak, during which Guerrero Jr.’s hit .506 (37-for-73) with 10 home runs, 11 doubles, 22 RBIs and 23 runs scored.
His OPS on the season has climbed to .945, which ranks ninth in MLB. This is as good of a stretch as he’s produced since his monster, near-MVP campaign in 2021.
Gausman was among the benefactors of Guerrero Jr.’s work on Thursday but pitched so well that he didn’t look like he needed it. The right-hander was in vintage form.
His only real blip came during a four-batter sequence in the third inning that went walk, home run, double and walk. The right-hander keyed in, though, getting Ryan O’Hearn to ground out to end the threat. He was lights out from there, retiring 15 of the next 17 batters.
In total, Gausman allowed just two runs on three hits over eight innings. He struck out two and walked three while tossing 100 pitches on the night.
The Orioles loaded the bases off Blue Jays reliever Zach Pop in the ninth and continued the damage against right-hander Chad Green, pushing four runs across the board and bringing the game to within one run. However, Green recovered to retire Anthony Santander on a flyout to centre and seal the door on the series win for the Blue Jays.