Bombs in the Bronx
Vlad Jr.’s 40th home run and Semien’s grand slam lead Jays to 8-0 win in New York,
NEW YORK—A grand slam as a footnote because, meh, no big deal, the Blue Jays have been hitting homers with ho-hum regularity on a long September weekend.
A chunk of baseball history written, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. cranking his 40th home run of the season, the youngest Blue Jay to reach those heights and only the second time a father-son duo has gone 40long in the majors, with Vladimir Guerrero Sr. impaling his in 1999. Junior was seven months old. (Cecil and Prince Fielder the other pop-spawn combo to accomplish the feat.)
A brilliant starting performance from Hyun Jin Ryu, reaffirming his ace bona fides, in case anyone had been doubting. A 14th shutout victory for the team this season. And a full game picked up in the wild-card race against the New York Yankees (and the Boston Red Sox, who blew a six-run lead against Tampa Bay).
Other than that, nah, not much of significance happened in the Bronx on Monday.
A game that, it turned out, was decided within about five minutes of the opening pitch by Jameson Taillon, as the Jays cracked back-to-back solo homers — Marcus Semien with his career-high 36th, the first of his two on the day, and Guerrero with his 40th in an at-bat where he might have just as easily taken the walk that was dangling there at 3-0.
It was all the offence the Jays needed but they continued to lay it on thick, as a glum crowd of 31,196 at Yankee Stadium made its displeasure volubly apparent.
Baseball is such a capricious game. The Yankees had sizzled in August, going on a 13-game run. Now they’ve tripped into a trough, embarrassed 8-0 by the visitors in the opener of a crucial four-game series, on the heels of dropping two out of three to Baltimore at home. Meanwhile, the Jays, after shivering through a protracted stretch of gelid bats, have unspooled a dramatic reversal — 42 runs scored since Sept. 1 and five wins in a row, matching their season-best streak.
The only small dark cloud for the Jays was the spectacle of George Springer fouling off his left knee in an eighth-inning at-bat and collapsing in a heap. That brought a concerned Charlie Montoyo out for consultation with his oft bangedup star but Springer wasn’t having any of it. It didn’t help when, on his next swing, a strike, Springer executed a painful looking splits, sank to a knee, was very slow getting back up and limped as he walked back to the dugout, straight down the stairs to the visitors’ clubhouse.
Day to day, the manager said later. It’s become the Springer mantra.
“He’s grinding it out,” Montoyo told said. And truly, Springer has not looked very comfortable since returning to the lineup, restricted to DH duty. “He’s trying to play for us and of course he’s not 100 per cent. But the funny thing about it is he got hit where he doesn’t have protection … We’re going to call it a contusion but he’ll be fine.”
On a more encouraging note, Ryu assured that he will not be needing any medical probing for the discomfort that led to his departure from the mound after six innings of three-hit ball, which earned him a 13th win.
“I threw a pitch that I normally wouldn’t have thrown throughout the season, a slider,” he said. “I felt a little tightness around my arm.” Oh-oh.
Though not usually part of his pitching repertoire, he had been intrigued by how effective the slider has been for co-ace Robbie Ray and it seemed like an opportune time to give it a go. Though maybe not so opportune since the Yankees had been flailing at his two-version cutter, high and low.
Ryu determined precaution was the better part of valour, after 80 tiny pitches. “I thought it was a good time to just shut down for today, so it doesn’t aggravate or get any worse.”
Relievers Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza and Adam Cimber picked Ryu up to consolidate the shutout.
Toronto’s wild card aspirations suddenly look much brighter, after stepping over Oakland. Not only has the offence gone full-tilt boogie but the Jays seem back in the groove, with hitting and pitching finally coming together at the same time.
Turning our attention to Guerrero, as if the attention hasn’t been on his magnificent season throughout. Semien had a word with Guerrero after taking batting practice and said “it was a good day to hit the ball to right field.” Not sure where these instinctive insights come from but Semien wasn’t wrong.
“He’s so good he did it in his first at-bat.”
Semien might very well hit the 40-homer mark himself. He recalled watching teammate Khris Davis do it three years in a row in Oakland and said “2019 opened my eyes, once I got in the 30s.” He has already hit four more than the career-high 33 he hit that year.
What Guerrero has put together in 2021, though, has popped Semien’s eyes wide open.
“It seems like Vladdy’s just steady the whole time. He takes his singles but he’ll take you deep, too … He’s so talented. He knows his swings, too, so it’s scary.”
Scary for opposing pitchers. So is Semien. He had his fourth multi-homer game Monday, the second shot a ninth-inning grand salami off reliever Brooks Kriske.
“We’re coming through with runners on more. That’s something we’re going to need to do down the stretch,” he said. “We’re starting to get a feel for how teams are attacking us, especially with runners in scoring position.”
They have an extraordinarily hot bat in Lourdes Gurriel Jr, strong contributions from Teoscar Hernandez and the catchers and the bottom of the order. Their confidence is soaring, their eye on the wildcard prize. “I think just having that killer instinct, realizing what’s at stake,” Semien said
You know what’s weird? The guy hit a grand slam and not a single reporter asked him about it.