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Guerrero Jr.'s Walk-Off and Other Takeaways From Blue Jays' Win Over Red Sox
When Bo Bichette reached base in the ninth, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turned to his manager to calm his nerves. "Game's over," he told the Blue Jays' skipper.
"I trust you guys," manager Charlie Montoyo replied. "If you say so."
Down to their last hacks, the Blue Jay bats rose. After Bichette plated the tying run an at-bat prior, Guerrero Jr. stepped in, looked out to George Springer at second base urging him to stay calm, and delivered on his promise to Montoyo.
Here are three takeaways from Toronto's comeback win:
Offense Strikes Early And Late
Teoscar Hernández snapped his head back in frustration, thinking he’d missed a meatball.
As the Blue Jay outfielder turned to run out the fly ball, it began to carry, twisting and drifting out to left field before splattering against the top of the wall. As the ball dropped to the ground for a hit, Hernández scooted into second with a double and cashed Toronto’s first run of the game. Two batters later, Matt Chapman climbed up the strike zone to scorch a double into the gap and cash two more Jays.
Toronto added another run in the third frame but the only real offensive outbursts came in the first and last innings. Alejandro Kirk—who Ross Stripling dubbed the "secret weapon"—got things started in the ninth with a pinch-hit single, before Springer, Bichette, and Guerrero Jr. clawed the game back for Toronto.
All four Blue Jay batters reached safely in the final frame and they didn't swing and miss at a single pitch in the ninth. After taking two sliders away, Guerrero Jr. loaded up and punished a third breaking ball to seal the comeback victory.
"They were ahead of us in the division," Guerrero Jr. said after his walk-off. "Trying to win those games, win the series, trying to get ahead. I was just fired up."
Bullpen (Temporarily) Blows It
Tim Mayza ran behind gnd plate to cover the throw home as Christian Vázquez plastered a pitch into left. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. collected the ball in the outfield and fired home, but Mayza could only watch as Xander Bogaerts stomped a foot over the plate as the leading run for the Sox.
Mayza's earned run against was the third by Toronto's bullpen on Tuesday, after Trent Thornton allowed a two-run homer to tie it in the seventh. With Yimi García, Julian Merryweather, and Trevor Richards on the Injured List, Toronto's bullpen faces a brutal combination of ailments, high usage, and subpar results in recent weeks.
In Junem the Blue Jays lineup has the most runs in the league (161), the best team batting average (.283), the best OPS (.857), and three of the top five in AL hits this month. Five Blue Jays entered Tuesday’s game with June OPS over .900 and not a single regular hitter has an OPS below .700 this month.
Despite the raking lineup, the Blue Jays are just 14-12 in June. With set-up man García specifically out for at least the next 10 days, the Jays will be "mixing and matching" to get the ball to Jordan Romano in the ninth, Montoyo said.
Defense Up The Middle
Boston's Rob Refsnyder bolted from first base twice in the opening frame, only to trot back to the base on Rafael Devers' foul-offs. So when Refsynder tried for the steal once more, Gabriel Moreno was ready.
The Toronto catcher sprung out of his stance, catching the ball in the zone to earn the strikeout of Devers and firing a heater to second base in under two seconds for the next out. Moreno's throw beat Refsnyder by four strides, for his fourth caught stealing on nine attempts in the bigs.
"I feel like that part of his game has lived up to the hype," Stripling said. "We knew about the bat, we knew about the arm, and I feel like both are on full display."
The next inning, 350 feet straight out from Moreno in center field, Raimel Tapia added a defensive gem of his own, laying out on the turf to steal a hit. And with the bases loaded a few frames later, Santiago Espinal saved two tack-on Red Sox runs by snagging a screaming liner hit up the middle by Christian Arroyo.
"That's when I felt, oh, okay, we have a chance," Montoyo said of Espinal's catch.
Guerrero Jr.'s walk-off ultimately won the contest, but the Blue Jays needed every run on Tuesday, including the ones saved by the defense.
