Sports

The Vlad Jr. era is underway! Here’s how Guerrero’s debut went down

April 27, 2019
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Happy Vladimir Guerrero Jr. day!

The son of the great Hall of Famer made the most anticipated major league debut since — pick one — Bryce Harper or Stephen Strasburg or Alex Rodriguez or Ken Griffey Jr. on Friday in Toronto, and after 48 hours of hype to get ready, we finally got to see what the 20-year-old would do on the big stage.

Vladimir Guerrero Sr. set the tone with a heartfelt message to his son:

Let’s see how the night unfolded as the Blue Jays hosted the Oakland Athletics.

Jump to each at-bat:
Vlad Jr.’s first at-bat | It’s going, going …
Does this one have the distance? | A hit … and (spoiler alert) a walk-off blast

First at-bat. Second inning: No outs, nobody on vs. Mike Fiers

The anticipation began much earlier in the day when we saw video of Guerrero arriving to the park wearing his dad’s old Expos jersey.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. puts on his father’s old Montreal Expos jersey before heading to Rogers Centre. Video by Marly Rivera

How cool was that? That’s just part of what makes Guerrero such a compelling story: Born in Montreal, raised in the Dominican Republic, playing America’s game in Toronto, the best hitting prospect in the minors often compared to not just his dad, but to Miguel Cabrera and Manny Ramirez and Mike Piazza and other greats.

Before the game, Blue Jays staffers were busy unpacking Guerrero Jr. jerseys – like his dad, he wears No. 27. The Blue Jays opened the gates earlier than normal to allow fans in to watch Guerrero take batting practice (he hit one bomb off the window above the second deck in left field). The Jays’ franchise needs a resuscitation after the playoff runs of 2015 and ’16. All that puts a lot of pressure on the young man with the baby face.

He steps in against Fiers and receives the requisite standing ovation. The camera pans to the proud papa up in one of the boxes. The fans chant, “Let’s go, Vladdy!” Guerrero Jr. is obviously built differently than dad, shorter and, umm, stockier. His gold-tinted dreadlocks pop out from under his helmet and he wears a shin guard and a protector on his left arm. Everyone is watching:

Fiers’ first pitch is a fastball off the plate (the ball is tossed out, apparently for posterity’s sake, as was the first pitch of the game). Guerrero takes a vicious cut at another fastball, fouling it off. The 1-1 pitch is just off the plate, but home-plate ump David Rackley doesn’t help by calling it strike two. After a fastball up, Guerrero swings at another fastball and grounds out to first base.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets a standing ovation from the Toronto crowd in his first MLB at-bat, then grounds out to first.

Second at-bat. Fourth inning: No outs, nobody on vs. Fiers

Some of the prop bets involving Guerrero available at DraftKings on Friday:

–17-1 to homer in his first plate appearance

–40-1 to hit two home runs (umm, only five players have homered twice in their first game)

–Over/under of 2.5 plate appearances for first career hit (over was -124/under was +100)

–Over/under of 12.5 plate appearances for first career home run (both -112)

Leading off the fourth against Fiers, Guerrero takes a slider off the plate then another slider on the corner for a called strike. Fiers throws a fastball in and then a good slider low and away, just off the plate, but Guerrero with an excellent take. That’s another big difference with his dad. Senior was a legendary free swinger, albeit with the rare ability to damage pitches off the plate. Junior has much better plate discipline — he had more walks than strikeouts as a minor leaguer — a key reason he projects to not only tap into his power potential but perhaps contend for batting titles as well.

The 3-1 pitch is a splitter that Guerrero skies to left field. Thanks to shoddy work by the cameraperson, the initial reaction is he hit 500 feet. Instead, A’s left fielder Chad Pinder drifts back and makes a leaping grab in front of the wall:

Almost. Almost.

Third at-bat. Sixth inning: Two out, nobody on vs. Fiers

For the third consecutive time, Guerrero comes up with no runners on base. Fiers starts him out with a curveball that he has to spin away from, drawing some boos from the home crowd. The 1-0 pitch is a slider up in the zone on the outside corner and Guerrero lofts a fly ball to right-center — for a brief moment, hearts beat faster — but right fielder Stephen Piscotty makes the catch one step in front of the warning track.

2 Related

With the Blue Jays up 2-0, there’s no guarantee Guerrero even gets a fourth plate appearance unless the Jays can get some runners on in the seventh or eighth innings (or the A’s rally). In other words, it’s not going to be one of the best debuts in major league history. Just for the heck of it, here are five of the best:

1. Karl Spooner, Dodgers (Sept. 22, 1954): The hard-throwing lefty dominated the pennant-winning Giants in his September call-up, throwing a three-hit shutout with 15 strikeouts. The only other pitcher with 15 K’s in his first game: J.R. Richard, in 1971 for the Astros. Spooner then threw another shutout, with 12 strikeouts, in his second and final start that year. Unfortunately, he hurt his arm in spring training in 1955 and that was his final season in the majors.

2. Juan Marichal, Giants (July 19, 1960): Marichal threw a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts, good for a game score of 96, the best for a debut starter (only five have had a game score of 90 or higher, the most recent Steve Woodard of the Brewers in 1997). The only hit Marichal allowed was a two-out single in the eighth. Marichal would throw one no-hitter, but that 96 would be the best nine-inning game score of his career.

3. J.P. Arencibia, Blue Jays (Aug. 7, 2010): Five players have homered twice in their first game. Trevor Story was the most recent, in 2016, but Arencibia went 4-for-5 with two homers and a double in a wild 17-11 victory for Toronto. His 11 total bases are the most for a debut game. (By the way, Arencibia was at Friday’s game.)

4. Starlin Castro, Cubs (May 7, 2010): Three months before Arencibia, Castro became the first player with six RBIs in his debut. He hit a three-run homer off Homer Bailey in his first at-bat and then a bases-loaded triple later in the game.

5. Cecil Travis, Senators (May 16, 1933). The only player with five hits in his first game, Travis went 5-for-7 in an 11-10 victory over the Indians. Travis had 1,370 hits and a .327 average through his age-27 season, but then missed three seasons due to World War II and never returned to his prewar form.

So Guerrero’s debut won’t go down among the best first-game performances, but he clearly impressed his teammates from the start. This is what Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman had to say after the game.

“It’s like having Zion Williamson on your team; it’s like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of talent,” Stroman (who went to Duke) said. “So just to have the opportunity to play with him, it’s amazing to look out there and see him behind me at third base. I think he’s gonna give us a huge little edge, and just, like I said, just carry this momentum from this win into every other start.”

Fourth at-bat. Ninth inning: No outs, nobody on vs. Yusmeiro Petit

After the A’s tied the game on Robbie Grossman’s two-run home run in the eighth off Joe Biagini (for some reason, Stroman was removed after just 97 pitches and allowing one hit), the stage is set for some drama as Vladdy Jr. leads off the bottom of the ninth. Could it really end with a walk-off home run? It does … although not from Guerrero. Still, it’s Vladdy who sets up the fantastic finish. Petit fires a fastball up and then Guerrero fouls off a fastball. The 1-1 tailing fastball is maybe off the plate, but called a strike, the second borderline pitch to go against the kid. He lays off a curveball in the dirt and then, protecting the plate, takes a 2-2 fastball just off the plate and grounds it past first base and into the right-field corner for a leadoff double and his first career hit. Dad gets some high-fives and Guerrero leaves for pinch runner Alen Hanson and to a standing ovation.

It’s not a home run, but the hit shows exactly why Guerrero is so special. He shortens up his swing instead of swinging from his heels and slaps the ball to the opposite field (well, it was still 96 mph). After a sacrifice bunt and lineout, Brandon Drury — the guy losing his starting gig at third base to Guerrero — then delivers the big blast:

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Brandon Drury smacks a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Blue Jays to a 4-2 win over the A’s.

So everyone goes home happy. Vladdy goes 1-for-4 in his debut, shows a good approach and plate discipline and his ghost runner even scores the winning run. After the game, Guerrero would say that in his first at-bat, “I basically just tried to control my emotions. I just wanted to make contact.” He would laugh that his teammates were laughing at him after the fans cheered him at one point for picking up a foul ball.

What would he remember about his first game? “That we won in my debut.”


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