It’s Vladdy vs. Shohei: MVP battle set to start
Sports fans being a predictable species, the “MVP, MVP” chants are to be expected when Shohei Ohtani comes to the plate (or strikes someone out) at Angel Stadium over the next three days.
Will it be done with more volume with the Blue Jays in town and thus Ohtani’s biggest competition for the American League version of the award on the other side? Pretty good chance.
By any reasonable measure, the Jays Vlad Guerrero Jr. has some work to do to catch the Angels star hitter and starting pitcher. But what better setting to make some ground than in a headto-head matchup over four games in Southern California, beginning with Tuesday’s doubleheader?
Can Guerrero ease his way out of a soft stretch at the plate during the Jays 9-2 home stand at the Rogers Centre? It wouldn’t be the first time that a Toronto star did just that during a showdown in Anaheim with MVP status among the stakes.
For the previously most memorable one, we take you back six years when a surging Jays team settled into Orange County for a threegame series with the Angels. At the time, Anaheim superstar Mike Trout seemed to have the clear MVP edge on Toronto’s Josh Donaldson, who like the rest of his team was heating up.
By the end of the threegame set, Donaldson had flipped public opinion after a dominating run at the plate that was etched in voters’ minds at season’s end.
In the first game — a 9-2 blowout Jays win — the Bringer of Rain went twofor-three with three runs batted in while Trout went 0 for 3.
And it got better for Donaldson. In the second contest — this time a 15-3 blowout — the Jays third baseman went four-for-five and drove in six runs while Trout again was 0 for 3. Donaldson finished off the series going two for five (while Trout was 3 for 4) and essentially paved his way to winning the season-ending award.
“He’s the best in the league so far ... by far the MVP,” Donaldson’s teammate, Jose Bautista said at the time. “If anybody doesn’t think that, they’re a fool.”
In that series, Donaldson topped the 100 RBI plateau, doing it in Game 122. Heading into Tuesday’s doubleheader at Angel Stadium, Guerrero had 87 in 110 Jays contests and is arguably having a more impressive season than the ex-jay.
The problem is, Ohtani has captured all of baseball with his work at the plate and on the mound.
In fairness, it will take more than one dominant three-game stretch for Guerrero to overtake the Japanese superstar and become just the third Blue Jays player to win the AL MVP honour (George Bell in 1987 was the first.) Oddsmakers certainly are booking it that way, with most betting outs listing the Japanese superstar as a minus-800 favourite with Guerrero the distant plus-450 second choice.
That doesn’t take away from the appeal of the matchup, however.
The Guerrero versus Ohtani showdown has plenty of layers to it and some growing history. At the All Star Game, what began as the Shohei Show turned into another Vlad moment, thanks in part to a towering 462-foot homer that helped land him All Star Game MVP honours.