TORONTO \u2014 Not even the return of Bo Bichette can conceal the recent struggles of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays (39-45) will enter their three-game set against Bichette and the New York Mets (35-49) at Rogers Centre on Monday after being swept four straight by the Texas Rangers (42-42) to extend Toronto\u2019s losing streak to six outings, which matches a season-worst slide.<\/p>\n
Guerrero, who has yet to homer at home in 2026, went 0 for 9 in the final two games of the series.<\/p>\n
Blue Jays manager John Schneider revealed that after Saturday\u2019s loss, he watched Guerrero go through a session in the hitting cage and the two talked about the slugger\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s actually good (mentally),\u201d Schneider said. \u201cYou want some players to be good liars to a manager in terms of how they\u2019re feeling. Vlad\u2019s been an open book with me, so I\u2019ve pressed him a few times in the last couple of weeks, and he\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what it is like to be Vlad, and the pressure that comes with it, the expectations that come with it. He\u2019s been dealing with it since he was 17 years old. It\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, you look back on, not just this stretch or this homestand so far, but you look back on it, and you say, \u2018Wow, that sucked,\u2019 and you get better from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider was asked if he would bench his $37.71-million US salaried first baseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to bench him,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cThere\u2019s always a time when a guy needs a little bit of a break, whether it\u2019s physically, mentally, whatever it is. It\u2019s no secret we\u2019re going to need Vlad to be good. He knows that, we know that. So, I think my job is to make sure his work is good, his mindset is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to pinpoint the Blue Jays\u2019 follies lately. They get down early, and their comebacks have fallen short. They need to start scoring early and preventing runs early.<\/p>\n
In Sunday\u2019s episode of their talespin, Nathan Lukes tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run bomb in the eighth inning. But then closer Louis Varland bounced a two-out pitch in the dirt. The ball bounded off home plate umpire Alan Porter high in the direction of the Texas on-deck circle.<\/p>\n
Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk failed to locate where the ball had landed, making it easy for pinch-runner Jarred Kelenic to score from second base and all of a sudden, the Blue Jays fell to 22-24 at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible feeling when you don\u2019t know where it is,\u201d said Schneider, a catcher from his playing days. \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can, pointing and screaming which way the ball went.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mets will arrive in Toronto having won only once in their last eight outings. Bichette, who left via free agency in the off-season, has a seven-game hit streak. He\u2019s batting .254 with 10 homers and 46 RBI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be nice to see him, but as far as Bo being here, for as good as he was here, I\u2019m diving into the Blue Jays way more than I am saying hi to him,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cNo offence to Bo.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tim Wharnsby, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Not even the return of Bo Bichette can conceal the recent struggles of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-768543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}