Beside home plate at Progressive Field, Guerrero Jr. stood and watched as the ball soared down the left-field line. It stayed fair, clearing the wall by a wide margin, and Guerrero Jr. could begin his first home run trot in nearly a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More importantly, the three-run homer gave the Blue Jays a 6-0 lead and some reason for optimism as they push for the playoffs. That swing \u2014 one of three big ones\u00a0for Guerrero Jr. Wednesday \u2014 helped the Blue Jays\u00a0beat the Guardians 11-0 and climb back to within 1.5 games of Cleveland\u00a0in the American League wild-card standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was nice,\u201d said manager John Schneider. \u201cI\u2019ve been behind him the entire year and will continue to be, but I think that was a little bit of a deep breath for him and a deep breath for everyone. Hopefully he can stay right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Cease lowered his season ERA to 2.25 with six innings of scoreless baseball, and Josh Smith added a solo home run in the eighth as the Blue Jays improved to 69-71 on the season, but this game was all about Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n
In a season of many lows for the 27-year-old, this game was a high point. To this point, the production just hasn\u2019t been there \u2014 and ultimately, he\u2019s accountable for those results. Within the last week, he\u2019s heard boos at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n
Still, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s been easy for Guerrero Jr. Midway through the season, he tried to work his way out of the slump, taking upwards of 300 swings per day. Later, he opted for rest, skipping the All-Star Game to help with lingering back and hamstring soreness.<\/p>\n
All the while, the questions about his performance intensified. That\u2019s part of the job at this level \u2014 but in ways it\u2019s a new challenge for Guerrero Jr., who has never struggled like this before. Along the way, he\u2019s had to learn new ways to handle these struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe talks to his teammates about it,\u201d Schneider said recently. \u201cHe’s open about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the way Schneider sees it, the more Guerrero Jr. talks to his teammates about it, the better. They\u2019re all pulling for him. They all respect him. Lean into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Vlad’s good at lying,\u201d Schneider continued. \u201cHe’s good at saying, \u2018No, I’m good.\u2019 And you have to keep asking and break down that wall a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s way more honest with me and the guys than probably he leads on to the media,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cBut yeah, he’s frustrated for sure. (And) he’s more aware of it probably than you guys know.\u201d<\/p>\n
If so, the swings Guerrero Jr. took Wednesday must have offered him plenty of relief. Along with the no-doubt home run, he contributed an RBI double that nearly left the park, as well as an opposite-field RBI single.<\/p>\n
While Guerrero Jr. declined to speak to writers after the game, Schneider expressed confidence that a game like this could provide some momentum for his first baseman.<\/p>\n
“You never know where the mental game takes you in this long season, you know?\u201d Schneider said Wednesday. \u201cMentally, you have to be tough, and mentally, you have to focus on what’s important in the moment. And I think Vlad’s doing a good job right now of working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first three-hit game since July 25 for Guerrero Jr., who drove in five, a season best. It\u2019s hard to quantify, but he looked like himself again.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it was with games like this in mind that Cease chose to sign in Toronto, and he enjoyed his first taste of September baseball with his new team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt great,\u201d the right-hander said. \u201cI\u2019m not really trying to think about all that when I pitch. I’m just going out and trying to execute, but yeah, the result definitely makes us happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Cease could have pitched deeper into the game if needed, the Blue Jays removed him after 83 pitches. Not only has he thrown 156.1 innings already, the Blue Jays hope he\u2019ll be pitching many more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably still learning how to manage workloads and all that, but that’s why we\u2019ve got Max (Scherzer) here who’s done it for 25 years,\u201d Cease said. \u201cYou’ve just got to ask him how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most importantly, the Blue Jays won, setting up a massive series finale on Thursday between Tanner Bibee and Jose Soriano. At this point in the season, it\u2019s about the team rather than any individual player.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s impossible not to dream about the kind of difference Guerrero Jr. can make if he can stay locked in for a few more weeks. A night like this reminds everyone of the immense potential he still offers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever has happened isn’t important,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAnd what\u2019s going to happen is the most important. So I think Vlad having a firm grasp on that is really, really big for him and really big for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beside home plate at Progressive Field, Guerrero Jr. stood and watched as the ball soared down the left-field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-881441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881441","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=881441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}