Vlad Jr.’s playoff breakout fuels Jays past Yanks

TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s playoff career before Saturday was not befitting a $500 million franchise cornerstone. The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman managed just three hits in 25 plate appearances and didn’t hit a ball over the fence across six games. More important, the six games, split into two-game slices over three postseasons, were all Blue Jays losses.

That all flipped in a 10-1 win over the Yankees, the franchise he has long openly despised, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.

Starring in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd hungry for playoff baseball, Guerrero delivered an all-around clinic in the Blue Jays’ first playoff win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series with a diving catch and three hits to fuel an offensive explosion.

«He’s the face of our franchise and a big reason why we go, a big part of why we’re here,» Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman said. «So it’s been nice to see him have the night that he had.»

At the plate, Guerrero swatted his first career postseason home run and finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored to fuel an offense that pounded 14 hits, including three home runs and three doubles. Defensively, his diving catch of Ryan McMahon‘s lineout at first base — while a bat shard whizzed by him — initiated an inning-ending double play in the second.

Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk complemented Guerrero’s effort with his first two career postseason home runs. Right fielder Nathan Lukes contributed two hits, including a two-run double, with three RBIs and a diving catch down the right-field line. Shortstop Andres Gimenez went 2-for-4 as the Blue Jays chased Luis Gil after 2⅔ innings and forced the Yankees to use six pitchers.

«I think having him get the scoring going, the double play at first with McMahon, it’s nice,» Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Guerrero. «It gives you a little bit of a jolt because it’s Vlad and what he means to this team.»

Guerrero did not waste time in providing that energy, swatting a 90 mph changeup from Gil in the first inning to give the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. He added singles in the second and eighth innings and a sacrifice fly in the Blue Jays’ game-busting four-run seventh, igniting the sellout crowd on a gorgeous day in Ontario with the building’s roof open.

That it happened against the Yankees was fitting. Guerrero’s dislike of the Yankees, he has said, dates back to two incidents over two decades ago: the Yankees pulling a contract offer for his father, a Hall of Fame outfielder, in 2003 and Yankee Stadium security telling his father to take him off the field when he was a boy.

«For me, I bring the same energy every game regardless who I’m playing, especially now in the playoffs,» Guerrero said. «That’s all I’ve got on my mind is to go out there and play hard.»

Whatever his motivation, the five-time All-Star has enjoyed facing the Yankees during his seven-year career. Entering Saturday’s matchup — the first ever between the two clubs in the postseason — Guerrero was batting .302 with 22 home runs and an 0.918 OPS in 102 career games opposite the Yankees.

He improved those gaudy numbers Saturday, adding another highlight reel to a year that began with him committing to Toronto with a 14-year, $500 million contract extension in April and that he hopes ends with the franchise’s first championship since 1993 later this month.

«For me, my goal always is to win a World Series, to bring the World Series here,» Guerrero said. «My father, he never had the chance to win a World Series. That’s one of my goals, always been one of my goals, to do that for me, for him.»