Blue Jays takeaways: Vlad Guerrero goes opposite field for MLB home-run lead in Bronx breakout

Opinion

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This article was published 25/05/2021 (1572 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 6-2 win over the Yankees on Tuesday night:

Lost in the Blue Jays’ six-game slide were three straight outstanding performances by starting pitchers, as Robbie Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Ross Stripling, who pitched behind an opener, combined to throw 20 2/3 innings and allow just three runs on 15 hits.

In the series opener in the Bronx, Steven Matz picked up right where they left off, taking a shutout into the seventh inning before running into trouble that was not of his own making.

The lefty started things off brilliantly, striking out the side in order in the first inning.

He had seven strikeouts in his first trip through the Yankees’ order, allowing only one hit, and not only had he kept the Bronx Bombers off the scoreboard through the first six innings, he hadn’t even allowed a runner to make it past first base.

Matz came back out for the seventh, got two quick outs and jumped ahead of Clint Frazier 1-and-2. The southpaw then threw a slider right on the outside corner that was called a ball. He followed with a fastball at the top of the zone, called ball three.

Twice he struck out Frazier, but Matz found himself in a full count and Frazier took him to the gap in left-centre for a two-out double, one of only three balls hit over 100 miles per hour off him all night. Kyle Higashioka followed with a single into the left-field corner to score the run and knock Matz from the game, a game in which Matz looked just like the guy who had those three tremendous starts to begin his season.

He joined Dave Stieb and Chris Carpenter as the only Blue Jays ever to strike out at least 10 Yankees in a game without issuing a walk.

Alek Manoah has a tough act to follow in his major-league debut Wednesday night, with the Jays starters having put up an ERA of just 1.32 over the last four games.

• Gift-wrapped: The Jays loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, looking to build on a 3-0 lead. Having lost six in a row — most of them in heartbreaking fashion — getting some extra breathing room felt like an absolute necessity.

With lefty Lucas Luetge on in relief for the Yankees, Santiago Espinal pinch-hit for Joe Panik and hit a ground ball to the left side.

Shortstop Gleyber Torres ranged to his left and very ambitiously threw home to try for the force play at the plate. He threw on the run, from a bad angle, and wound up bouncing it past the catcher, all the way to the backstop. Two important insurance runs came in to score, increasing the lead to 5-0 and giving the Jays plenty of cushion on the way to picking up their first win in nearly a week.

• Homer king Vlad: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a ridiculous final homestand in Dunedin, hitting .415 over the 10 games with 17 hits — including four doubles and seven home runs — and posting just a silly OPS of 1.503.

The 22-year-old didn’t skip a beat as the Jays checked into the Bronx.

Yankees starter Corey Kluber wanted no part of him in the first inning, walking Guerrero with two out and nobody on, but he pitched to him in the third and Vladdy Jr. made him pay.

With Bo Bichette on first with the Jays’ first hit of the night, the young slugger took a 1-and-1 cutter and absolutely demolished it.

Guerrero’s career-high 16th home run of the season went 410 feet to the opposite field, clearing the wall in right-centre by plenty, and came off the bat at a still-astonishing but now almost routine 114.7 m.p.h.

With his eighth home run in the last 11 games, Guerrero finished his evening leading the major leagues in home runs.

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