Blue Jays takeaways: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homers three times in win over Nationals

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This article was published 27/04/2021 (1659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Tuesday’s Blue Jays-Nationals game:

On April 23, 2010, Texas outfielder Vladimir Guerrero stepped into the batters’ box to face Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Scherzer was just 24 years old, in his second full season in the majors, with just 10 big-league wins under his belt. Guerrero was in the penultimate season of his Hall of Fame career, his only year in Texas, beginning what would be his final all-star season. The 35-year-old had 401 major-league home runs to his credit, and an 11-year-old namesake at home.

In the bottom of the first inning, Guerrero, the Rangers’ cleanup hitter, stepped in against the hard-throwing young righty, worked the count to 3-2 and then blasted a two-run home run to deep centre field.

The big fly was in support of Texas starter Rich Harden, of Victoria, B.C. and gave the Rangers the early lead in a game they eventually won 5-4 on a walk-off single by Elvis Andrus. The winning run was scored by Joaquin Arias, who was pinch-running for a young, slugging first baseman named Justin Smoak.

Eleven years and four days later, Guerrero’s namesake stepped into the batters’ box to face Scherzer, now a seasoned veteran on a Hall of Fame track of his own, in what would end as a 9-5 Toronto win.

Since giving up that home run to the senior Guerrero, Scherzer has won a World Series, captured three Cy Young awards, been to seven straight all-star games and notched 166 more wins.

The first time Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. stood in, he hit a ground ball to shortstop that resulted in a 6-4-3 double play to end the first inning. Things were a little different the second time.

In the third, the Blue Jays loaded the bases on singles by Alejandro Kirk and Cavan Biggio, followed by a Bo Bichette walk.

Guerrero, who bounced into that first-inning double play after fouling off three straight two-strike offerings, didn’t let the count get that deep this time. Scherzer missed with a 1-1 slider, came back with another one and he hammered it 415 feet to deep left field for his third career grand slam. It was only the third grand slam allowed by Scherzer over his 2,387 1/3 big-league innings.

Next time up, Junior drove a fastball 436 feet to left-centre for his second home run of the night and sixth of the season, which broke him out of a tie with Marcus Semien and Bichette for the team lead.

But it only put him into a tie with his father. The senior Guerrero had taken Scherzer deep again on August 13th, 2011, at Camden Yards as a Baltimore Oriole. He would hit just three more homers in his illustrious career.

Junior wasn’t done, though, adding another in the seventh off Kyle Finnegan, a two-run shot giving him his first-career three-homer game, something his father never did. He’s the youngest player in major-league history to hit three home runs, one of which was a grand slam, in the same game.

• Heating up: Biggio has borne the brunt of a lot of Blue Jays fans’ frustration for the team’s slow offensive start to the season — save for Guerrero, Bo Bichette and Randal Grichuk.

Biggio bunted for a hit to begin the bottom of the first Tuesday night and wound up with a three-hit game, his second in the last three.

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The 26-year-old was hitting just .156/.269/.333 when he was elevated to the leadoff spot a week ago. Since moving up in the order, Biggio has reached base at least twice in four of five games, hitting .353/.455/.412.

• Nothing like free talent: The Jays used seven pitchers to secure Tuesday night’s series-opening win, two of whom were available to every team in the majors over the winter.

Anthony Castro, snatched off waivers from the Tigers, entered in a huge spot in the fourth inning. The Jays had just taken the lead on Guerrero’s slam, but Washington loaded the bases with one out against Tommy Milone.

Castro was called upon to face Victor Robles and got him to ground into an inning-ending double play on his fourth pitch. He came back out to get the first two outs of the fifth before giving way to Tim Mayza.

Joel Payamps, who the Jays picked up on waivers in the winter, lost on waivers and then picked up again, worked an eight-pitch scoreless sixth inning and got the first out of the seventh before running into trouble. That’s eight big outs from a pair of unheralded waiver pickups.

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