DETROIT -- He’s alive!
Finally, after weeks of grinding through frustrating at-bats that looked completely unlike the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. we’ve all come to know, he launched a home run in the Blue Jays' 4-1 win over the Tigers on Sunday.
Guerrero’s third homer of the season -- his first since April 20 -- was a 105.1 mph rocket to left field (369 feet) off the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, with just a 16-degree launch angle off the bat. That’s the lowest launch angle on any home run hit in Major League Baseball this season and just one degree off the lowest in Guerrero’s career, which he’s done on three homers.
“That’s vintage Vlad,” manager John Schneider said. “He just reacted to a heater. I was just hoping it got over [Riley] Greene’s head, really, for Vlad’s and our sake. But that’s vintage Vlad. Hopefully, it gets him going.”
You could see what this meant to Guerrero as he rounded the bases, flexing his arms and shouting as he neared second. This was as much an opportunity to exhale as it was to celebrate.
“It’s been a while since I’ve hit the ball that hard,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “From now on, regardless of where we’re going, I just need to keep doing my job and keep hitting the ball hard.”
Before his home run, Guerrero had gone 69 at-bats without an extra-base hit, just two ABs away from the longest drought of his career (May 2022).
This also comes on the day Guerrero was moved into the No. 2 spot in the lineup, somewhere he hasn’t hit in nearly a year. This has been a constant push-and-pull throughout Guerrero’s career, and while he’s always been vocal about his preference to bat third, a swing like this could be awfully convincing.
"Right now, if they want me to lead off and the team needs me there, I'll lead off,” Guerrero said with a smile.
Guerrero’s struggles recently had become an unavoidable story. Coming into play Sunday, he was batting just .128 with a .364 OPS over 13 games in May and he’d grown understandably frustrated. Guerrero echoed what everyone around him kept saying, though, which is that he just needed one big game, one big swing, to turn this whole thing around.
“I’m just looking to hit one ball very hard. It will stay in my head and in my mind,” Guerrero said Saturday. “I know things are going to change.”
Well, he’s finally hit one ball very hard. Guerrero tends to catch fire when he comes out of these slumps, and with a four-game series against the Yankees on deck beginning Monday, his timing couldn’t be better.