© John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
'This Is My House': Guerrero Walks It Off in Blue Jays' Pivotal Win vs Yankees
TORONTO – On a night when everyone gathered to watch Aaron Judge hit a historic home run, it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who stole the show.
In the 10th inning, with the Blue Jays down to two outs and a man on second, Guerrero laced a line drive into left field and the celebration began. The throw to home was late, and the 23-year-old's teammates mobbed him at the mound, capping off a thrilling 3-2 walk-off victory over the Yankees.
After Toronto had some time to soak it in, Guerrero marched towards the Rogers Centre, emphatically shouting "This is my house." Once the contest concluded, Guerrero explained his eagerness to bring that winning energy to a home playoff game. He has even chatted with a couple of Blue Jays legends about the occasion.
“I was talking to (Jose) Bautista and (Edwin) Encarnacion and they both told me you haven’t seen Toronto yet," Guerrero said through a team interpreter.
In the top half of that fateful 10th frame, however, Toronto's 'pen defused some serious danger. With runners on first and second with two outs, manager John Schneider elected to walk Aaron Judge and load the bases.
Left-hander Tim Mayza was called in to face Anthony Rizzo, who's actually a better hitter versus left-handed pitching this season. With the weight of the game on his shoulders, Mayza clutched up, inducing an easy unassisted groundout to first base.
"With Judge coming up and knowing you've got Mayza available [with] two outs to face Rizzo, we liked that," Schneider said. "We liked that we had the top of the order coming up for us, thinking we're gonna score at least one."
Schneider was right, as the Jays plated the decisive run in the bottom half.
But before all the hoopla Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman turned a bumpy first few innings into an excellent outing. Home runs have been an issue for Gausman lately. Before Monday, he’d allowed seven bombs in his last 31 innings (2 HR/9). On Tuesday, Isiah Kiner-Falefa tagged him for a line-drive solo shot to increase the Yankees’ lead to two.
It’s unlike Gausman to get hit with the home run flu. By nature of his splitter-heavy arsenal, teams should, in theory, struggle to get the ball elevated. Since Gausman switched to a splitter-dominant starter in 2020 with the Giants, he’s never had his HR/9 inflate above 1.2.
Gausman settled down almost immediately after the Kiner-Falefa blast, retiring nine in a row at one point. It wasn’t the right-hander’s finest outing in terms of pitch efficiency, but he still had his swing-and-miss stuff on display. Gausman generated a 33% called-strike-plus-whiff rate through his 6.1 innings of work.
Of note, Gausman cracked out the slider 30% of the time, a season-high mark. In the sixth, he punched out the side, completing the inning with a perfectly placed, full-count slider to freeze Giancarlo Stanton.
"Obviously only two lefties in their lineup, and I knew [the slider] was gonna be a big pitch for me," Gausman said. “And so when I feel very confident in that pitch, then I'm just gonna roll with it."
The 31-year-old finished the night with seven solid strikeouts, catapulting him to the 200-strikeout threshold for his second consecutive season.
With the win, the Blue Jays' magic number dropped to three, inching the squad even closer to a playoff berth.
