Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Toronto Blue Jays star first baseman, added to his home-run count and his lore early and often on Wednesday night against the New York Yankees (GameTracker).
Guerrero, who entered the night batting .263/.300/.421 (102 OPS+) with one home run in his first 20 plate appearances, put the Blue Jays ahead early with a solo blast in the first inning. Initially, it seemed he might be limited to a double that was fielded by center fielder Aaron Hicks after it hit off the wall. The umpires then conferred and ruled that Guerrero's batted ball had cleared the wall before then bouncing onto the field of play. Take a look:
Hicks and Guerrero would be intertwined again an inning later. That's when Hicks reached on an infield single. The most notable aspect of Hicks' base knock was that he inadvertently stepped on Guerrero's bare hand, which he had placed on the foul line to steady himself in order to retrieve the bounced throw. We'll spare you the image, but rest assured Guerrero's hand was bloodied by Hicks' cleats. He retreated to the Blue Jays' dugout to receive medical attention.
Although it would've been reasonable to see Guerrero leaving for the night to get an X-ray or stitches or just out of an abundance of caution, he remained in the game. He then did something to prove to everyone that he was in fine condition: hitting another home run, his second on the night and his third on the season.
Guerrero's first home run off Gerrit Cole traveled 416 feet with an exit velocity of 109 mph. His second went 427 feet, again with an exit velocity of 109 mph. For those wondering -- and remember that matchup statistics are best used in a descriptive, not predictive manner -- Guerrero entered the night having hit .278/.381/.333 with one extra-base hit in 21 trips to the plate against Cole.
The damage Guerrero inflicted on the Yankees' pitching staff wasn't limited to just Cole, either. He added his third home run of the game in the eighth inning.
That gave Guerrero a 4-for-4 night with the three home runs and four RBI. Just like that, he was hitting .391/.417/.957 on the season. His Hall of Fame dad was watching and approved of the huge night.
This marked the eighth multi-homer game for a player in 2022, but it was the first three-home run game of the season. There were 14 three-homer games last season, including one from Guerrero on April 27 against the Nationals.
