As Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped up to the plate for his first appearance in Game 4, FOX broadcasters Joe Davis and John Smoltz pointed out that while Guerrero was performing well in the World Series, he had not yet hit an extra-base hit.
In his initial matchup against Shohei Ohtani, Guerrero struck out. However, by the time he returned for his second at-bat, the Dodgers had already built a commanding early lead in what has been an exhilarating Fall Classic.
Just moments later, Guerrero capitalized on a pitch from Ohtani, sending the ball soaring into left field. This pivotal hit not only gave the Blue Jays the lead but also underscored their resilient nature—a trait they have consistently demonstrated since overtaking the Yankees for the AL East lead back in July.
For those familiar with the Blue Jays, their performance should come as no surprise. Known for their ability to string together hits, they demonstrated this once again with a four-run rally in the seventh inning after Ohtani was pulled, thanks to timely hits from Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement.
Of the Blue Jays’ 11 hits that night, nine were singles—a continuation of their batting style seen earlier in the series. On Monday, during a grueling 18-inning marathon, 14 out of their 16 hits were also singles, a game so long that FOX exhausted its inventory of paid advertisements for inning breaks.
While the Blue Jays stumbled in Game 3 with some managerial and baserunning errors, their latest performance was impeccable. For those who have followed Toronto’s deepest postseason run since 1993, these moments of resilience and recovery are all too familiar.
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.
