BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped to the plate for the third time at Sahlen Field on Tuesday night, moments after the crowd finished the loudest rendition of the Buffalo Bills’ “Shout” song you’ll ever hear from 5,321 people, the chants started.

“MVP! MVP! MVP!”

This wasn’t just an overzealous crowd celebrating the start of another unexpected season of Major League Baseball in its city, it was a rally for one of the hottest campaigns in the sport. Earlier in the game, Guerrero had launched his 17th home run of the season to reclaim a share of the MLB lead on a scorching liner out over the left-field wall that just never seemed to drop.

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You’ve read this story before. Guerrero homered, doubled and singled twice in the Blue Jays’ 5-1 win over the Marlins, putting up yet another exit velocity of 110-plus mph while launching yet another rocket to the opposite field. It was a show-stopping performance in the Blue Jays’ new home city, though, because this is what players’ peak games are supposed to look like. Guerrero makes these games seem normal, like another in a long line of the same, and that’s special.

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“He’s locked in,” said manager Charlie Montoyo, who like everyone else, is looking for new ways to describe the 22-year-old star. “He’s one of the best hitters in baseball right now. That’s not easy to do, what he’s doing right now, especially against a guy like they had tonight. He’s got good stuff, some of the best stuff I’ve seen all year. Vladdy just sees a slider and takes him out to left, then a line drive to right. He’s fun to watch.”

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It took Guerrero just seven pitches to put together his first career four-hit game, too. By the end of the night, MLB’s home run co-leader owned a .337 average with a 1.104 OPS. All of the sudden, it’s easy to remember when the hype train rolled into Buffalo for the first time back in late July 2018. It’s getting easier to remember all of the words we used to describe the soon-to-be No. 1 prospect in baseball, too. A game-changing bat. A generational offensive talent.

Games like this also show the two fascinating sides of Guerrero.

On one hand, Guerrero is a big kid. His personality is contagious among teammates, especially when he’s on a roll like this, and if there’s a celebration, handshake line or prank being pulled in the dugout, Guerrero is at the center of it with a grin. That carries over to the field, too, where his personality is beginning to show more and more.

That’s not to be confused with a relaxed attitude, though. Guerrero is fiercely intense when it comes to his plate appearances and daily routines. Those “routines,” which we heard so much about when Guerrero was off to a relatively slow start in 2019 and ‘20, aren’t the most exciting part of his game, but they’re one of the most important. Having that foundation under him is what allows Guerrero to find the balance he has in 2021, but even when he hears the “MVP” chants raining down, he’s got other things to tend to.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” Guerrero said through a team translator. “It feels great, but I’m very focused on the game and that at-bat. It feels great. If they think I’m the MVP, then it’s good. I thank God for that.”

A player like Guerrero feeds off the moment, too. All great players do. We’ve known this since March 2018, when Guerrero, who’d just turned 19, launched a walk-off home run in a preseason exhibition game in Montreal, where his father once starred. The crowd at Sahlen Field on Tuesday night was lively in its own right, but coming from 2020 and the quiet crowds in Dunedin, it was a massive boost.

“We feel great. The support of the fans here in Buffalo was great,” Guerrero said. “We really needed that. We felt like we were playing home in Toronto. It was great in Toronto. For me, for the rest of my teammates, it felt great.”

Overshadowed by Guerrero was Robbie Ray, whose performance would have made him the story of the game any other night. Ray gave the Blue Jays six innings of one-run ball, striking out nine, to lower his ERA to 3.57, and his newfound control was on display once again with just two walks.

Ray’s velocity has upticked during all of this, which seems counterintuitive to improved control, but the lefty hit 98.3 mph with his fastball on Tuesday, tied for the fifth-hardest pitch of his entire career. To find the four pitches Ray has thrown harder, you’d need to reach all the way back to the final two months of the 2016 season.