Blue Jays takeaways: Vlad Guerrero makes Astros pay — at the plate and in the field

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This article was published 05/06/2021 (1623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Saturday’s 6-2 Blue Jays win over Houston in Buffalo:

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has had an outstanding season so far, and he added a few more lines to his all-star resumé by shining in every aspect of the game on Saturday.

It started with the second batter of the ball game.

Houston’s Jose Altuve led off the first with a single to left and Carlos Correa followed with a slow roller toward third. Joe Panik charged in, bare-handed it and made an off-balance throw to first that Guerrero knew wasn’t going to be in time to get the runner.

Vladdy came off the bag to get the throw and, seeing Altuve trying to sneak an extra base, fired a seed across the diamond off his back foot in plenty of time for Bo Bichette to tag the runner sliding into third.

In his second at-bat, Guerrero hit a grounder down the third-base line on which Alex Bregman made a great diving stop on his backhand. The Gold Glove finalist came up firing, but Vlad Jr. beat the throw for an infield single — the first of what would be three hits on the day.

He moved up to second on a single by Teoscar Hernandez, then put on the jets when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. lined a single to centre with one out. Guerrero came flying around the bases and scored easily.

The cherry on top of a terrific day at the ballpark was, of course, a towering home run blasted majestically to deep left. You could see Guerrero’s eyes light up as Jose Urquidy’s 3-and-1 slider tumbled homeward.

The home run was Vladdy’s 18th of the season, driving in his 46th and 47th runs. The three hits left him batting .338. At game’s end, those totals gave Guerrero the league lead in all three triple crown categories.

• Strip tease: Two weeks ago, Jays righty Ross Stripling thought his career might be over. A 7.20 ERA will do that to a guy.

Over two bullpens between outings, Stripling tightened up his delivery, then went out and starting putting up zeroes. Each strong inning led to another, and the confidence boosts have helped the veteran start to get his numbers back to where they belong.

Saturday, Stripling allowed one run over five innings, which came on a bases-loaded walk with two out in the fourth. Earlier in the season he might have imploded after that free pass, which came after back-to-back singles and a hit batter loaded the bases. This time, though, he composed himself and went right after nine-hitter Martin Maldonado (who hit a grand slam Friday night) striking him out to end the inning.

Over his last three outings, Stripling has allowed just two runs over 17 innings of work, with only one home run. He gave up nine homers in his first 40 2/3 innings as a Blue Jay. That 7.20 ERA has dropped to 4.71.

• Let it go? Heck no! The Astros caught a huge break last season by getting to play in empty stadiums. Before the pandemic shut everything down in March of 2020, baseball fans across North America were relishing the thought of going to the ballpark that season and letting relentless boos rain down on the Houstons, whose garbage-can-banging cheating scandal that stole them a World Series had been revealed just weeks earlier.

Nobody got that chance last season, and this year some fans are still ready to let them have it — including those in Buffalo, who have booed Altuve, at least, every time he has come to the plate so far in the series.

Altuve has been a lightning rod, mainly because of the still-unproven theory that he had a buzzer taped to his chest which alerted him to what pitch was coming. The video of Altuve telling his teammates not to tear his jersey off after his home run off the Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman to win the 2019 AL Championship Series lent a lot of fuel to that fire, though Altuve has said it was just because he didn’t want to expose a bad tattoo. Which is perfectly reasonable and believable and makes a lot of sense. Or something.

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Bregman and Correa, who have been far more arrogant in their defiant attitudes after issuing what have since proven to be empty apologies over the cheating, haven’t borne the brunt of the booing, but they did hear some.

Memories are short, and some say it’s time to stop talking about the Astros’ long-term, teamwide co-ordinated effort to cheat their way to a World Series title less than four years ago. But the banner still hangs and the players involved remain unpunished, as they always will, having traded their versions of the truth for immunity from official consequence.

The main reason to never let this go is exactly that: They got away with it. The only consequence they can possibly face is boos from visiting crowds.

Let it go? Shoeless Joe Jackson still isn’t in the Hall of Fame, and his team threw the World Series 102 years ago!

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness