Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Sparks Latest Blue Jays Rebound And Continues Compelling World Series

Before his first at-bat of Game 4, FOX broadcasters Joe Davis and John Smoltz mentioned how Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was producing in the World Series but missing the extra base hit.

His first at-bat against Shohei Ohtani resulted in a strikeout and when Guerrero approached the plate for his second appearance, the Dodgers held their fourth straight early lead in an entertaining Fall Classic.

A few minutes later, Guerrero was getting a pitch from Ohtani and lifting it to left field, giving the Blue Jays the lead and showcasing another example of their relentless resilience, which started emerging in July when they overtook the Yankees for the AL East lead.

By now it should not be a surprise for the Jays, who put together one of their typical innings of constant singles in a four-run seventh inning after knocking out Ohtani following hits by Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement.

Of the Blue Jays 11 hits, nine were singles. This appeared after 14 of their 16 hits were singles in Monday’s 18-inning marathon that was so long FOX ran out of paid advertising to show during inning breaks.

The Jays made a few mistakes in Game 3 on the managerial and baserunning front but their latest recovery was flawless. It also was hardly surprising since anyone closely watching the Blue Jays’ deepest postseason run since 1993, had seen this before.

Three weeks ago, the Toronto Blue Jays raced out to a five-run lead after two blowouts over the Yankees at home and then Louie Varland allowed a three-run homer to Aaron Judge in Game 3 of the ALDS.

The outcome appeared to give the Yankees an opening to pull off the rare two games to none comeback and led to some questions about doubting the Blue Jays.

The following night with Cam Schlittler coming off a 12-strikeout, eight-inning gem in the wild-card series against the Red Sox, George Springer started things with a double that hugged the left field line, Guerrero followed with a single that hugged the right field line and gave the Jays a 1-0 lead en route to a 5-2 victory.

The Jays never gave up the lead and a few hours later, John Schneider was giving his famous “Start Spreading the News speech” and Guerrero was yelling “The Yankees Lose” with David Ortiz.

Still it was only the first step and maybe the Jays seemed flat in losing by a combined 13-4 margin in the first two games of the ALCS against Seattle. The doubts seemed to creep in at that point, but the Blue Jays blitzed Seattle by a combined 21-6 margin to erase them.

Then more doubts again creeped in when Seattle rolled to wins in the first two games of the ALCS in Toronto and again after Eugenio Suarez hit a grand slam in Game 5, forcing two elimination games in Canada. The Jays erased them by winning Game 6 but they returned when they were seven outs away from losing Game 7 at home.

Then another show of resilience appeared when Springer hit his famous three-run homer, putting Blue Jays into a matchup with the Dodgers, who entered as heavy favorites by many at least until a nine-run fifth inning in Game 1 on Friday.

There were a little doubts about the Blue Jays after a nearly seven-hour marathon ended with Freddie Freeman’s homer off Brendon Little – the same pitcher who allowed Suarez’s grand slam. They had the daunting task of their hitters going against Shohei Ohtani and fell behind by one run.

About 20 hours after Freeman’s ball landed beyond Dodger Stadium’s center field fence, the Blue Jays showed what they are displaying throughout a stellar turnaround from winning 74 games last season. And the reality is it started as bleary-eyed baseball fans in the Eastern Time zone finally went to sleep when Guerrero reminded his team about how the Fall Classic is about the first roster to win four times.

“I feel really good about this team every night,” Schneider said. “It’s hard to play 18 innings and come back and kind of flip the narrative against a very talented team and a very talented individual in Shohei Ohtani on the mound. I feel really good about just us.”

At this point, it is hard not to feel good about the Blue Jays after bouncing back yet again.