TORONTO – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was unable to bring joy to the Toronto Blue Jays for the first time in weeks.
He set a career-high earlier in the afternoon by extending his hit streak to 22 games, but in the ninth inning, the powerful Blue Jays hitter was trailing by a run and had to bat with Daulton Varsho on first base and one out.
However, Guerrero missed a 103 mph hit by the Oakland Athletics’ flamethrower Mason Miller, earning strike three.
The Blue Jays (54-63) eventually lost 1-0, while the Athletics (49-69) tied their three-game series on Saturday.
“That’s the price you pay to come and watch it, even if there’s not much going on two and a half hours later,” said Toronto manager John Schneider.
“Basically, you just expect him to beat you out there.”
Guerrero and Miller engaged in a four-pitch duel. The Blue Jays’ hitter missed a 100 mph pitch and tied it with a ball to the outside. Guerrero hit a fly ball down the right field line on pitch number 3 and landed about six rows into the stands.
The strikeout pitch was a 103 mph whirlwind. Strike three. Game over. Miller had his 17th save.
“Miller is one of the best relief pitchers in baseball and you say, ‘Here you go,'” Schneider said. “He hit 103 on his last pitch. Those are the matchups you want to see. We just came up short today. But I thought it was, ‘Here you go, hit my best stuff’ for our best hitter.”
Brent Rooker’s 29th home run off the top of the left outfield wall with two outs in the sixth inning was all the Athletics needed, as starter Osvaldo Bido (3-3) was at his best in front of 34,312 spectators at the Rogers Centre.
For the fourth game in a row, Guerrero Jr. was able to extend his hit streak in the first inning. But after a bloop single by Ernie Clement in the second inning, that was the entire hitting attack of the home team.
Bido retired the last 15 of 16 batters he faced, hitting Leo Jimenez in the fifth inning.
The Blue Jays failed to get a runner to second base.
Guerrero went one of four. After his hard-hit single to right, he was ejected in the fourth inning by a check swing dribbler to the catcher and a sharp-hit comebacker to Osvaldo to end the sixth inning.
Toronto starter Yariel Rodriguez (1-5) went 5 2/3 innings. He was thrown from the mound after Shea Langeliers followed Rooker’s home run with his third single.
It was Rodriguez’s 85th pitch of the afternoon and was exactly the number the Blue Jays think tank had estimated.
“I definitely felt good when I got the last out (in the sixth),” Rodriguez said. “But we had a plan.”
Langeliers completed his four-for-four appearance with another single in the ninth inning.
The Athletics ended a streak of eight straight games without a double play, getting two for the price of one after Toronto catcher Brian Serven walked to first in the third inning and Spencer Horwitz was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning.
Scott Alexander, Tyler Ferguson and Miller maintained the Athletics’ two-hit shutout with effective innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
BIG WIMP
When Clement left in the fourth inning, he ended a streak of 35 consecutive at-bats without a single hit, currently the second-longest streak in Major League Baseball.
The 28-year-old right-handed all-around infielder moved up to fifth in the batting order due to his recent offensive performance.
Since June 12, the Rochester, NY native has a batting average of .306 (48 of 157) with 11 doubles, four home runs and 23 RBIs.
ON DECK
Chris Bassitt (9-10) will start for Toronto in the last of three games against Oakland on Sunday. The Athletics will counter with left-hander JP Sears (9-8).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 10, 2024.
