Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-7 across the first two games of the ALCS, as his Blue Jays fell into an 0-2 hole at home against the Seattle Mariners. He reached base only once in those two games, an eighth-inning walk in Game 2 with Toronto already down by seven runs; he ended the inning on third. That is not going to do it.
Vladito was the hottest bat of the divisional round, bashing the Yankees to the tune of a 1.609 OPS and three homers in four games. Toronto may not need quite that level of cartoonish production from him to stay afloat against the Mariners, but the job is certainly easier if the team's best hitter is, well, hitting. To wit: The beefy lad seems to have awakened on the cross-continental flight before Wednesday night's Game 3, and now the Blue Jays have a pulse.
In the top of the first inning, with nobody on and two outs, Guerrero pounded a 1-1 George Kirby fastball hard into the ground on the left side; the ball took a gigantic bounce, Eugenio Suarez had to leap to pull it down at third, and his off-target pirouetting throw bounced past Josh Naylor at first. Guerrero, who'd booked it—a relative term, as the big fella runs like his feet are encased in cement—down the line, was credited with an infield single, and sent to second on Suarez's throwing error. Nothing came of it, except that Vladito had his first hit of the series.
In the third, with the scored tied at 2-2, one out, and Nathan Lukes on first, Guerrero watched a 1-0 slider right down the middle for strike one, then pounced when Kirby threw the exact same slider on his next pitch, ripping it to the wall in left field for a double. The drive came off Guerrero's bat so hard and low, and took such a powerful carom off the wall and back toward play, that Lukes had no time to do more than go first to third, but he scored later in the inning on a wild pitch, and Guerrero followed him home on a Daulton Varsho double that gave the Blue Jays a 5-2 lead.
Guerrero struck again to lead off the top of the fifth. Kirby, still on the mound despite having already allowed six runs, sent a first-pitch slider right down the chute—it was the same dang pitch Guerrero dented the wall with two innings prior—and Vladito blasted it over the wall in dead center. When he came up to bat again the very next inning, with Kirby long gone, George Springer on at second, and Toronto leading 9-2, the Mariners prudently issued an intentional walk, only for Alejandro Kirk to sock a three-run dinger two batters later.
When Guerrero came up to bat again in the eighth, the Blue Jays still led 12-2 and the game was effectively over. And in fact this at-bat's result did not affect the game's final score and so was not really relevant at all. Unfortunately for you, however, I love Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as if he were my own son rather than that of my favorite ballplayer who ever lived, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., and so I am going to tell you what happened. Luke Jackson hung up some kind of lousy 83 mph first-pitch breaking ball, and Vladito roped that get-me-over buncha bullcrap the other way, into the right-field gap; it rolled all the way to the wall for another double. His final line on the night: 4-for-4, two doubles, a dinger, three runs scored.
It's none of my business, but in my opinion a good strategy for the Seattle Mariners would be to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out when he comes to the plate instead of lobbing him sorry pieces of shit to deglove with his bat. Nobody tell them I said that.
